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FRUIT FARMING FOR PROFIT 
CALIFORNIA. 



Nature in Sancal Creek, Rancho Canada de los Alisos. 

Frontispiece. 



FEUIT PAEMING 



FOE PEOFIT 

IN CALIFOENIA 

DWIGHT WHITING 

El Toro, Orange Co., California 



SiE Fkedeeicz Leighton says : — 
** They rest on tlie bosom of Nature where safety is.'* 



LONDON 

GRIFFITH FAERAN & CO. 
NEWBERY HOUSE, 39, CHARING CROSS ROAD 
1893 



^^^^ 



IThe riaUs nf travAation and of reprodvxiion are reserred.] 



I 

I 



• 



INTRODUCTION. 



I LEFT Boston, Mass., as a boy, in 1870, to regain tlie 
health which I had lost through overwork, travelling 
and hunting in the Western States, chiefly in California, 
and in so doing regained my health. After a year or 
two I went to Britain and Europe, thence to South 
America. In 1872 and 1873 to Central America and 
Mexico. Subsequently to North Africa, the Orient, 
India in 1874 and 1875, back to the United States of 
America, thence to South Africa, 1877, 1878, 1879. 
Therefore it must be conceded that I know many 
countries, and when I say that I have chosen Orange 
County, California, for a home, it must carry weight. 

In 1884 I purchased eight thousand five hundred 
acres (8500) intending to plant at once. Business took 
me back East, and it was not until 1888 that I was 
able to return to California, when I commenced planting. 
The result I place before you. Having so many acres, 
I have been led to adopt the following scheme to further 
develope my Eanche, at the same time to surround 
myself with solid social ties, otherwise I would never 
dream of parting with my " Home Eanche," of the 

Eancho Canada de Los Alisos," when it has just 
arrived at its highly productive and interesting stage. 

Believe me that there is a charm in tilling the soil 



6 



I ntr eduction. 



which is so kindly, in watching the trees develope and 
bear ; the care of them imparts a happiness and con- 
tentment, and the seqnel is health. Moreover, the life 
is one of skill and judgment, and not, as is often 
supposed, one of toil entirely ; the day's routine is more 
varied than any other business, and who shall say that 
the son of the soil is not more manly than one who 
toils in the confined area of a city ? With these words 
I conclude, asking you to peruse these pages, hoping 
they may help many young men to independence, and 
many a parent to be glad that they embraced this 
opportunity. 



Names of large landowners, neighbours of 
Mr. Whiting, to whom they have lent their names as 
references : — 

Mr. EiCHARD O'Neil, Santa Margarita Eancho, 275,000 



Don Marco Foester, San Juan Capistrano, 24,000 



Mr. L. F. MouLTON, Eancho Neguel, El Toro, 26,000 



Mr. James Irvine, San Joaquin Eanche, Tustin, 

102,000 acres. 
Madam Modjeska, El Toro, 2500 acres. 



DwiGHT WniTiNa, 

El Toro, Orange Co., California. 



acres. 



acres. 



acres. 




CONTENTS. 







PAGE 


Introductory Letter. By Mr. Whiting . 




5 


Prospectus 




9 


ArfLDAViT OF Title , . 




U 


Word to Parents, G-uardians, and Emigrants 




17 






20 


Objections and Answers 




26 


A Newspaper Clipping address ld to Ctnics, Grum- 
blers, General Failures 


29 


Letters from Various Sources .... 




31 


Chapter on Climate of El Toro .... 




42 


What the JSTewspapers say about Fruit Growing 
its Profits 


AND 


53 


Game, Sport, in Orange County. By Couint Jaro 
Schmidt 


von 


90 


Miscellaneous Information 




94 


Marketing Californian Fruits. By W. M. Mills 
Calif ornian Magazine, October, 1892 


, in 


99 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 



PAGE 

Map or South Calipoenia 5 

Nature iu Sancal Creek, Eancho Canada de Los 

Alisos Frontispiece 

Bananas round a Chicken House on Mr. Whiting's 

Eanche 16 

The Story-house, designated as ''Mr. Keating's 

House," on Mr. Whiting's Ranche .... 18 
A Six-year-old Prune Tree with Crop jast maturiag . 22 

Facsimile of Bishop's Letter 30 — 31 

Grlimpse of Prune Orchard as seen through the semi- 
tropic vegetation of Terrace Garden of Mr. Whiting's 
BuDgalo^^ ......... 40 

Mr. Whiting's Pour-year-old bearing Bartlett Pear Trees 46 
No. 1. General Yiew, looking North ; shows part Pour- 
year-old Prune Orchard, bearing ; houses on slight 
elevation, and Creek amongst huge Sycamores on 
right . . . . . . . . . .49 

A Six-year-old Prune Grove . . . . . . 56 

South-west View of Mr. Whiting's Bungalow. Reversing 
Yiew of No. 1 ........ 61 

St. George's Episcopal Church, El Toro, California . 64 
Mr. Whiting's Four-year-old Apricot Trees bearing . 74 
Sycamores (Los Alisos), Rancho Caiiada de Los Alisos . 79 
General Yiew, Mr. Whiting's House and Terrace Garden, 
from Prune Orchard. (Front space reserved for 
melons, &c.) ......... 84 

California Southern or Santa Fe Railroad Depot, El 

Toro 97 

Yiew of some Stables and Barns on Mr. Whiting's 
Ranche 108 



ORANGE COUNTY CO-OPERATIYE ORCHARDS, 

EL TORO, CALIFORNIA. 



Object.— The object of the owner and vendor, Mr. 
Dwight Whiting, is to place on the market, amongst 
a certain cla^s of Intending Emigrants five hundred 
and sixty (560) acres, being what is known as his 

Home Eanche," part of the Eancho Canada de Los 
Alisos,"the whole consisting of 8500 acres, with a view 
of ultimately colonizing the remainder of his Eanche. 
This is the primary cause of such a splendid offer, and 
which offer carries with it sufficient proof of its high 
class yalue as an inyestment, apart from the other con- 
sideration of a good opening for young men contem- 
plating emigration. 

Mr. "Whiting places a yalue on the whole fiye 
hundi'ed and sixty (560) acres, covering real and 
personal property and improvements hereinafter 
enumerated, of one hundi'ed thousand dollars, and 
proposes to issue this amount in forty shares of two 
thousand five hundi'ed dollars (S2500), or five hundi'ed 
and sixteen £ sterling (£516) each, of which he will 
sell thirty shares, and retain ten shares. Each share 
will represent an undivided one-fortieth interest of the 
whole amount. It can be put to the votes of the share- 



10 Fruit Farming for Profit in California. 



holders on arriving in California whether they wish to 
incorporate the concern as a company. The owner is 
willing to do what the majority of shareholders decide 
upon subject to his management for two years. 
Dividend declared and made payable on the first day 
of January each year, to take advantage of high 
market for grain and hay about Christmas. 
The property bears the expense as follows : — 

About one hundred acres bearing prune orchards, at 
$500 per acre 

Four hundred and fifty acres including ten acres bear- 
ing apricots and pears and 16 acres orchards, set 
out to walnuts, pecans, Japanese ches!nuts and 
mixed fruits; at about $87 per acre 

Live stock— 1 imported shire stallion j 12 improved 
breed colts j 1 Jersey bull; 6 teams; 7 cows and 
2 calves ; 2 pairs carriage horses ; poultry 

Dwellings, buildings, waggons, implements, tools; 
harness, kitchen furniture, water system, fencing, 
tanks, etc. 

$100,000 



$:o,ooo 

40,000 
3,000 
7,000 



The implements on the estate are quite sufiicient to 
carry on all farm operations. Teams are mostly brood 
mares. 

Mr. Whiting has chosen to under rather than over 
estimate in all his figures. Take, for instance, the 460 
acres now bearing land, priced at $87 per acre. This 
is generally valued at $100 in the country around. 
Again, in estimate of grove, Mr. Whiting puts down 
100 acres as in orchard, whereas there are 10 acres 
more in bearing apricots and pears, and other 16 (sixteen) 
in peaches, chestnuts and walnuts, which said 26 acres 
are worth $200 to $250 an acre. But these really are 



Fruit Farming for Profit in California, 1 1 

enumerated in and valued with the 460 acres at $87, 
which proves the estimated purchase price to be low at 
Mr. Whiting's figures. 

The fruit industry in California will receive a great 
impetus the moment the Nicaragua Canal is completed, 
as freights will be lowered and new markets opened 
up. 

Intention. — The main idea of Mr. Whiting is to 
sell the shares to young gentlemen, at once making 
them interested working shareholders, who will during 
the first two years be taught how to manage a farm in 
all branches, fruit-growing, drying, budding, grafting, 
nursery business, blacksmithing, carpentering, pruning, 
stock raising, grain growing and haymaking. The old 
way was for parents to pay a premium of £100 to £150 
a year for one or two years to have their sons taught or 
not taught as the case might be. Here Mr. Whiting 
makes them profit by their own work from the start. 

A second idea being, if gentlemen with families wish 
to become purchasers of shares, they can rent a house 
plot from the owners at a nominal rent and erect thereon 
suitable cottages for themselves, which they can sell 
or remove whenever they wish, the owners of the 
Eanche simply reserving the right to become first 
purchasers at cost price. Any shareholder not wish- 
ing to take his share of work during the first year 
shall furnish competent substitute when the Eanche 
absolutely needs it, to be at the discretion of the manager. 
The families of shareholders, after owners themselves, 
shall always have preference of fruit picking and pack- 
ing, at regular contract pjices. One of the main 
objects of buying out this Home Eanche of 560 acres 



12 Fruit Farming for Profit in California. 



as a co-operative enterprise is to provide knowledge and 
experience for those who later on may wish to purchase 
land in this desirable locality. As Mr. "Whiting 
ultimately intends to part with a major portion of his 
estate, he will undertake to sell land at §87 per acre 
for first year, and §100 per acre for next two years, 
in order of application. 

Mr. Whiting will undertake guidance of the Eanche 
for the first two years, to ensure the business being carried 
on in the same way, and to the best advantage of both 
shareholders and himself, during which time he must 
have absolute control guaranteed him of all workings 
of the Eanche, and, where necessary, hiring of skilled 
labour and salaries, and all interested must sign an 
agreement to this effect. Mr. Whiting draws no salary 
during these two years. This plan will be necessary 
to arrive at best results in the present scheme and the 
ultimate colonization of Mr. Whiting's adjoining lands. 
At the end of two years Mr. W^hiting offers to con- 
tinue the management or supervision, if so desired by 
shareholders, at 82 00 a month, or Mr. Whiting will 
elect someone to act as assistant manager under his 
direction, when he will thus supervise for 8150 a month, 
the sub-manager getting about §75 a month. 

Shareholders residing in the Eanche houses will 
pay four dollars a week for their food ; any profits 
accruing will be turned into the general funds. 

AVashing and medical attendance to be paid for as 
extras. 

Students who are competent and wishful will be 
able to earn salaries at current rates at the expiration 
of one year ; thus those of the shareholders who really 



Fruit Farming for Profit in California, 1 3 

are determined to get on will have steady work, their 
endeavours at once drawing wages and dividend, form- 
ing the most advantageous co-operative scheme ever 
yet introduced. 

Object. — The object of this Co-operative Ranching 
Company is, — 

Firstly, the production of green and dried fruits and 
nuts. 

Secondly, raising hay and grain. 

Thirdly, ,, live stock. 

Fourthly, „ nursery stock. 

Fifthly, „ dairy produce and poultry. 

Remakks. — Each of these minor branches is made 
to fit in and to be subservient to the primary object. 
To this end a number of acres will be planted out to 
the most desirable trees every year, thus bringing a 
quantity of hay and grain lands into high-class 
orchards. We may say here that all the 560 acres are 
the choicest valley lands. Mr. AVhiting had deter- 
mined to add to his prune orchard, and plant out a 
number of almonds this winter, 1892-1893, but has 
decided not to have it done in his absence, as too great 
care cannot be used. 

Quite a source of income can be derived from raising 
nursery stock, and this is being done now ; over a ton 
of peach pits are being put in for nursery stock on 
which to bud almonds, prunes, peaches, and apricots. 
This can be done in a corner of the Eanche, and a 
profit of 850 per thousand trees realized. 

The Soil is all of the best quality valley land, and has 
been grazed on for years by sheep, adding untold wealth 
to the land. The character of the soil is alluvial, and rich 



14 Fruit Farming for Profit in California, 



in all plant foods ; tlie sheep have added ammoniates. 
Tlie soil never bakes, but working np very fine, retains 
all the winter moisture in the highest degree possible. 

Water. — For domestic, garden, nursery, and live 
stock, water is piped (gravity flow) from a pure spring 
some three miles up the valley on Mr. Whiting's Eanche. 
This perpetual water right goes with the place. Wells 
of good water can be got in the valley at from fifteen 
to forty feet deep. 

Fences. — All in good condition. 

Taxes. — On Eanche between $150 and $250 per 
annum. Poll Tax on all males over eighteen, $2 per 
annum. Eoad Tax, $3 per adult male per annum, 
which latter can be worked out. 

Title, — Perfect, abstract of which is affixed here. 



OFFICE OF THE OEANGE COUNTY 
ABSTEACT COMPANY. 

Santa Ana, California, 

Oct. 29th, 1892, 9 a.m. 
From examination of the records of Los xingeles 
County, California, in the offices of the County Ee- 
corder, County Clerk, County Auditor, and County 
Tax Collector thereof, and the records of Orange County, 
California, in the corresponding offices thereof, con- 
cerning the title to that certain real property in the 
County of Orange, formerly a portion of Los Angeles 
County, State of California, hereinafter described, the 
Orange County Abstract Company hereby certifies that 
the title thereto is now vested in 



Fmii Farming for Profit in California. 15 



DWIGHT WhITIXG 

as his separate property and estate, • 
Free of all Incumbrances, 
Except a Lease dated January, 2nd, 1889, given by 
Dwigbt Whiting to G. "NT. Lang, of a portion of tlie 
property hereinafter described. This Lease expires 
January 1st, 1894, and the Lessor has privilege of 
terminating said Lease at any time by giving thirty 
days' written notice to Lessee. 

Descpjptigx. 

Lot One (1) of the Eanche Canada- de los Alisos, 
containing 558^"^^^ acres, according to a map of said 
Eanche showing survey and subdivision by J. M. 
Baldwin and G. Bridger in June, 1876 ; said map 
being of record in Book Three (3; on page Two hun- 
dred and ninety (290; of Miscellaneous Records of Los 
Angeles County, California. 

In Witness whereof the Orange County xVbstract 
Company has caused this Certificate of Title to be 
duly signed by its Secretary, and its Corporate Seal to 
be affixed the day and year above written. 

Orange County Abstract Company, 

By (Sgd.) Feed'k. Stephexs, 
Secretary. 

Signed, Feed'k. Stephens, 
Searcher. 

SEAL. 

State of California, s s. 

County of Orange. 



1 6 Fruit Farming for Profit in California, 



On tiis 29tli day of October, in the year One tlion- 
sand eiglit hundred and ninety-two, before me, C. W. 
Hnraphreys, a Notary Public in and for said Orange 
County, duly commissioned and sworn, personally ap- 
peared Frederick Stephens, known to me to be the 
Secretary of the Corporation described in, and who 
executed the within and annexed Certificate of Title, 
and acknowledged to me that such Corporation executed 
the same. 

In Witness whereof I have hereunto 
set my hand and affixed my Official 
Seal, at my office in the said County 
of Orange, the day and year in this 
Certificate first above written. 

(Sgd.) C. W. HUMPHEEYS, 

Notary Public in and for said 
Orange County. 

Peesonal Lite Stock of I^^ditiduals. — Must pay 
pasturage at fixed local rates. Ponies can be bought 
for 840 to §70, suitable for rough usage under saddle. 




Fruit Farviin^ for Profit in California, 17 



A WOED TO PAEEXTS AXD GUAEDLIXS 
AXD EMiaEAXTS. 

The. advantage of such an opening, set fortli in tlie 
accompanying pages, is obvious. Here, for a sum far 
less than is often given outright to boys inexperienced 
in the ways of other lands and people, they become 
possessed, or their parents or guardians for them, of an 
interest in a good fruit and grain Eanche, where the 
produce can be sold on the spot for cash, as buyers far 
and wide know of the superior quality of our non- 
irrigated fruit, and where during the first year they 
can learn everything necessary to run a Eanche of 
their o^vn, and after that period, those who have 
proved themselves capable may earn money with their 
investment in sight to spur them to their highest 
endeavours. Here is a home assured them, amono; 
congenial companions, away from all worldly tempta- 
tion, and instead of, as is so often the case, their payiv g 
£120 to £150 a year to persons who don't care whether 
they learn how to saddle a horse, or where even this 
little thing is done for them, and they ride out with 
gloves and immaculate shoes, they simply pay for their 
board, and any profit left over they receive in dividends. 
The earnest boys soon would be able to make money 
in this select home, apart from Jividvrnds, and all will 
be encouraged to do so. With their own interest so 



1 8 Emit Farming for Profit in California. 



well in siglit we feel sure tliat all will respond and 
become useful to tliemselves, helping to swell tlieir 
dividends all the time. 

"WTiilst not aiming to make this an Episcopal 
Colony, we have it as our dearest wish that many 
Churchmen respond. 

Mr. and Mrs. Whiting have erected a chapel at El 
Toro, dedicated last November by Bishop Xichols. of 
the Diocese of California, who has given Mr. Whiting 
a general letter to the Bishops, Clergy and laity in 
England. Eev. G-eorge Eobinson, late Chaplain of 
the Huguenot Hospital, London, England, is Eector 
here. 

We desire to draw the attention of our readers to 
the letters relating' to the climate, soil, and orchard. 

Mr. Whiting has illustrated this pamphlet with 
photogravures, only those two, showing six year old 
trees, not being of his Eanche. 

There is no place where wines and spirits are sold 
within nine miles. There is no need of pistols or 
revolvers. 

We refer sportsmen to a letter by Count Jaro von 
Schmidt, a resident of this county. 

For recreation there will be a library of standard 
and agricultural works, billiard-room, tennis court, 
cricket, trout and sea fishing, boating and bathing, as 
there are two watering-places within nine miles of El 
Toro. 

A separate room will be provided for each pupil 
stockholder, if wished, which he will have to keep tidy 
himself. Bedding and tovrels to be found by indi- 
viduals, which are about as cheap here as in England. 



Fruit Farming for Profit in California, 19 



Whilst it is not the idea or contention to have any 
invalids as co-operators^ it may be well to draw atten- 
tion to the fact that the healthfulness is so great and 
climatic conditions so favourable to life, that Mr. 
Whiting would not have the slightest hesitation in 
advising parents to send to this valley young men, who, 
though not very robust, will here grow healthy and 
strong. 

Eailroad station, post-office, and church are within 
quarter of a mile of Eanch'e houses. 

This valley is not too low lying, as can be gathered 
from the railroad elevations. Starting at sea level at San 
Juan by-the-Sea, rising gently for eight miles, dropping 
slowly into this valley, which has an elevation of 450 
feet, rising gently out of the valley say thirty-five or 
forty feet ; it then gradually descends until Santa Ana, 
thirteen miles away, is arrived at, 150 feet above the 
sea. Thus it will be seen, that though there is a 
valley depression much favouring this Eanche, the 
altitude insures the most favourable conditions of 
climate. At the head of this valley, hidden in the 
Santiago Canon, a valley of the Trabuco mountain 
(5700 feet) which overlooks El Toro, lies a modern 

Ardeii," the property of Madam Modjeska, who comes 
to this county nearly every summer, and thus re- 
cuperates her health and strength. 

For ordinary wear Clothes such as are required 
for English summer are best. Working clothes better 
bought here. 



B 2 



20 Fruit Farming for Profit in California. 



ESTIMATED INCOME OF EANCHE FEOM ALL 
SOURCES. 

Basis for 1893. 



50 tons hay 

Barley 

Corn 

Pasturage on stnbble 
10,000 prnne trees, 50 lb 
at 1 c. 



500 apricots, 200 lbs. at 
2 c. . 

500 pears, 50 c. per tree . 
Stallions' service outside 

Eanche 
Miscellaneous sales . 
Increase value on 12 

yearling colts . 
Increase in number colts 

10 ... . 
Nursery stock say . 
Sales wood 

Poultry, eggs, and turkeys 



500 
1750 
250 
250 

5000 



$10 a ton low. 
This value repre- 
sents \ crop for use 
of land. 

Price prunes ave- 
raged $40 per ton 
for last three years 
— on trees. 



1000 
250 

250 Minimum. 

100 

250 

250 
200 
50 
700 



Fruit Farming for Profit in California, 2i 

Milk and bntter . . 300 

Hogs .... 250 

4 calves increase . . 50 
Eent of 1^ story dwelling 

honse by Mr. Keating 300 



81L700 
Less depreciation on dead 
capital, §7000 10 per 
cent. . . .700 

811,000 

Basis of Estoiates fob 1894. 
No. of trees. 

10,000 prune trees at 81 

per tree . . . 10,000 
500 apricot trees, at 83 

per tree . . . 1500 
5 pear trees, at 81 per 

-•ee .... 500 
larmed by selves . 5500 850 acres = 1 ton per 

acre ; grain at 820 
per ton shows §7000 
gross for grain. 
Seeding costs §1 an 
acre, balance labour 
less tban 50 e. an 
acre. 



Mr. Keating, an 
elderly gentleman, 
desires to rent this 
house for a term of 
years, with the con- 
sent of shareholders, 
at this fi^-ure. 



22 Fruit Farming for Profit in California. 



Straw .... ICO Straw sells $4 to 

$6 per ton baled. 
Yield will be 300 
tons minimum on 
350 acres. 

Pasturage on stubble . 200 
Increase on value of stock 225 
Increase on stock numbers 250 
Stallion - service outside 

Eanche ... 300 
Miscellaneous sales . . 100 
Nursery stock . . . 300 
Sales, wood ... 50 
Poultry, eggs, and turkey 700 
Hogs .... 250 
Eent of house, Mr. Keating 300 



$20,275 = gross earnings. 
Allow 20 per cent, off for 
working expenses and 
depreciation of dead 
capital, viz. houses, 
fences, implements, 
&c 4055 



$16,220 = net earnings. 

The above figures on fruit represent value on trees. 
From 40 to 70 per cent., according to personal success 
and markets, may be added to these figures by drying 
fruit on Eanche. 

For future profits after 1894 we call your attention 
to what others have made on prunes to be seen amongst 
the newspaper clippings. 



s 



a. 
o 



C/2 



Fruit Farming for Profit in California, 23 



EXPENSE SHEET. 
1893. 

All expenses of running the Eanche will be met by 
Mr. Wbiting personally, other than pupils' board afore- 
mentioned. 

1894. 

For requirements of this year we refer you to Income 
sheet, when it will be noticed that 20 per cent, is 
deducted from gross receipts. 

Of this 20 per cent. $700 being 10 per cent, on $7000 
dead capital^ invested in houses, fences, implements, 
&c., the balance, $3355, I believe, will be more than 
ample to run the Eanche. 



24 



Fruit Farming for Profit i7i California, 



CLIMATE OF EL TOEO. 

Califoexiaxs have long ceased to be surprised at any 
of the phases of climate the State presents, but the 
foreigner is surprised when told that this district, which 
in a short time is destined to make a world-wide repu- 
tatic n for its green and dried fruit shipments, has a 
better average climate than any other portion of the 
State But so it is. Common-sense explanation of 
the fact that El Toro and Los Alisos Yalley has a 
climate unsurpassed in the world for fruit growing 
may be interesting, but it requires too much space to 
be dealt with here. Ocean currents and other causes, 
however much discussed, are not so convincing as the 
plain matter-of-fact figures supplied by public reports. 
All civilized nations publish meteorological observa- 
tions, and it is from these of our own and other 
governments that this table is compiled : — 



Places. 


Mean per 5 ear. 


Mean for 
Winter. 


Mean for 
Coldest Month. 




60-05 


46-07 


45 00 




58-03 


4502 


43-02 




62-06 


49-0) 


47-04 




5803 


40 02 


43 02 




64-08 


61-12 


57-02 


El Toro, Orange Co., Cai 


55*6 


54-00 


51-05 



There can be no escaping these facts, and no attempt 



Fruit Fariuiiig for Profit in California, 25 



to discredit this table lias ever been made. It speaks 
for itself. Here is a climate that the orcharclist can- 
not find equalled in the world ; and now that it is at last 
understood, it means that where a few years ago was a 
sheep range, there will be a prosperous, wealthy com- 
munity, surrounded by hundreds of acres of orchards 
whose products shall make the name of Los Alisos 
Yalley known throughout the land as a synonym for 
good fruit growing. But there are more figures, and 
these must convince the most sceptical, audit shows El 
Toro's advantages of climate in a striking manner. 



Towis. 


Avera^-e 
Winter 
Tempera- 
ra.e 


Average 
spring 
Tempera- 
ture. 


Arerage 
Saniiner 
Temp -ra- 
f^-e. 


Average- 
A-a:umn 
Tem. era- 
ture. 


Average 

Annnal 
Tempera- 
ture. 




Eeddicg . . 


47-8 


61-1 


81-0 


6r3 


63-S 


36-66 


Sacramento . 




57" 5 


71-7 


61-c 


eo-2 


19-94 


y a p i . . . . 


48-9 


576 


69-6 


59-1 


59-3 


23-36 


Santa Barbara 


54-3 


59-4 


67-7 


63-1 


6M 


16-92 


Los Angeles . 


53-6 


58-4 


67-8 


62-7 


60-6 


17-64 


San Diego . . 


54-6 


581 


66-8 


62 6 


60-5 


11-01 


Coltjn . . 


520 


62 7 


78-3 


65-3 


64-6 


9-81 


El Turo . . . 


55-3 


57-6 


70-8 


62-9 


55-6 


lS-9 



The peculiar quality of the air in and about El Toro 
is worth much for curing and drying figs, prunes, 
plums, apricots and other fruits. All these can be 
cured naturally, and without the expense of artificially 
heated drying houses. 

Its climate, as well as soil, had much to do with its 
original purchase by Mr. "Whiting, who, being a sufterer 
from bronchial-asthma, found this to be the only place 
in the world where he could breathe freely. 



26 Fruit Fanning for Profit in California. 



FEUIT EANCHINa IN CALIFOENIA, OE 
"OBJECTIONS" AND ANSWEES. 

To fhe Editor of Weekly Times. 

Sir, — If you think it wortli while to insert the following few 
facts abont California, which are the 'Hruth and nothing but the 
truthj" it may cause many young Englishmen to pause before 
leaving in many cases good appointments in the old country and 
coming out here to try their fortunes at fruit ranching. In the 
first place, the industry in most places (except in a few excep- 
tional cases) is wholly overdone, and the profits, in the millions 
of pamphlets which are distributed, are placed, to say the least, 
at figures which are realizable once in 10,000 oases. Labour is 
excessively dear, and, when it comes to a ranche where it is 
forced to have outside help, in most cases it is best to be the hired 
man in preference to the owner. 

Another drawback is, that the Britisher out here is at a great 
disadv^antage ; he gets no assistance, is looked on rather as an 
interloper by his American neighbours, and fair sport for all they 
can get out of him. 

Young fellows with good constitutions and used to manual 
labour may be able to withstand the intense heat and malaria of 
the interior valleys where the raisin industry is mostly carried 
on ; I say intense heat and malaria, because that is never men- 
tioned in Calif ornian reports, and so I think it well to dispel the 
illusion that all the State is so healthy, because it is not. Along 
the coast, and in many of the valleys near the same, the climate 
is as perfect as it can be, and life made as pleasant as it can, 
when one has some money over and above what his ranche may 
bring him ; but when he has to depend solely on the latter, and 
fondly believes he is going to make a small fortune, he will find 
that a Californian fruit ranche is hardly the thing. 

I have been out here a year, been in every valley where fruit 
is the industry, have worked on ranches, and have lived on in the 



Fruit Fanning for Profit in California. 27 



hope of finding somethiag whereby I can make a little over and 
above a living, but I am at last obliged to say that the fruit in- 
dustry, as depicted by Californian Boards of Trade, etc., is a 
totally different thing to the reality. 

I do not wish to dishearten young fellows like myself from 
coming here, to see, anyhow; bat I willingly give my year's 
experience to any fellow-countryman for what it is worth. 

Hoping you may think this worth while iaserting in your paper 
in as prominent a place as you think proper, 

Believe me yours truly, 

A. G. C. 

San Jose, Aug. 30th. 



Messrs. Barmby and TVadham, replying to the condemnation of 
fruit ranching in California by ''A. G. C," say they agree with 
him on these two points: — That Californian Boards of Trade and 
Californian agents undoubtedly exaggerate and mislead in their 
pamphlets; that young fellows should not leave good appoint- 
ments in England to seek their fortunes in California. 

But, though unscrupulous and profit-seeking agents and sanguine 
settler-seeking Boards of Trade do paint the picture all too rosy, 
it does not follow that it is not rosy at all. And though there 
are thousands of lucky young men with good appointments in 
England, how many thousands are without appointments, and 
without brains to fill them were the appointments offered ? 

Not that we claim that fruit farming is a pursuit to be learnt in 
a moment, or unnecessary to be learnt at all. Indeed, one great 
source of disappointment lies in the prevailing idea that any one 
can grow fruit in California, and young Englishmen who have 
never done a stroke of honest work in their lives sail gaily for 
this promised land with the idea that they have only to place 
their trees in the ground, sit by while they grow, and triumphantly 
gather a fortune from them. 

Though recognizing that we should be comparative failures on 
an English farm, we felt that we should be invaluable on a Cali- 
fornian one, and we find that such is the idea of most young 
English gentlemen. We have now learnt that Californian fruit 
farming is a very skilful and delicate affair indeed, and thus we 
always advise those going out to fruit farm to for once put aside 



28 Fruit Fanning for Profit in California. 



the EngHshman's confidence in his own infallibility, and either 
start his farm nnder an expert's superintendence, or have it started 
fv r him. 

We cannot agree with the assertion that the Britisher in 
California is looked upon as an interloper and fair sport for all 
that can be got out of him." This may be so in individual cases, 
when said Britisher is conspicuously insular and ostentatiously 
critical (as some, alas ! are rather prone to be) ; but our ex- 
perience tends to show that a hearty welcome is generally 
forthcoming to those who are willing to shelve home- fostered 
prejudices \ in fact, well-bred Englishmen are in demand. 



Fruit Farming for Profit in California, 29 



A XEWSPAPEE CLIPPING ADDEESSED TO 
CYXICS, GEUMBLEES, GEXEEAL FAILUEES. 

The world around, you will meet the above described, 
and tbe only thing is to plod along and pass them by. 

They soon find their level, for they are of no nse in 
this busy world. 

But now and again they make themselves heard, a 
last spasm, as it were, before they return, like the 
proverbial bad '' copper." 

This is what the San Francisco Chronicle says in 
reference to a spasm of failure " that some poor man 
who thought he knew everj-thing, has given vent to : — 

" The London Times has published a letter from San 
Jose, California, in which the writer states that the 
fruit industry has been wholly overdone in California. 
VTe can hardly single him out for censure, because he 
is merely repeating the stories which are set afloat by 
men who are apprehensive that too great a development 
will ruin the industry. But, somehow or other, it 
continues to expand, and the fruit grower is constantly 
finding new markets for his products, and is prospering 
in spite of the pessimistic declaration that the fruit 
business is being overdone. As for his charge that 
' an Englishman is at a disadvantage, and is looked 
upon as an interloper by his American neighbours/ 



30 F}uit Farviing for Profit in California, 

that is all bosli. xin Engiislimaii in America, if lie 
minds liis own business, and does not attempt to treat 
his neighbours with scorn because they happen to be 
Americans, is as well treated, as much respected, and 
enjoys every right and privilege enjoyed by other 
Californians." 

As one who has travelled generally through the 
Colonies and the United States of America, and havino; 
met many such failures,'' I proclaim it their own 
fault in every instance that they do not get on — for I 
am convinced that there are many more openings to 
success in the United States of America than in old 
crowded England. 



^^^'^ ^wii^^ ^^^c^ ■ 



^ ^ Jr^jt. ^^^^^ .cs:-.^ 



[ 



Fruit Fanning for Profit in California. 3 1 



LETTEES OF COMMENDATION. 



Los AxGELOs, California. 

Oztoher Viih, 1892. 

To WHOM IT MAY CONCERN : 

We, tlie undersigned, are personally acquainted with Mr. 
Dwight Whitingj of El Toro, and know him to be a large land- 
owner, a successful orchardist, and a responsible gentleman. 
Geo. H. Bonebrake, Pres., Los Angelos National Bank. 
J. M. Elliot, Pres., First National Bank of Los Angeles. 
Farmers and Merchants, Bank of Los Angeles. 
Herman W. Hellman, Vice-President. 
A. D. Childress, Pres., The City Bank. 
L. K. Breed, Pres., South California National Bank. 
J. F. Sartori, Security Savings Bank and Trust Company. 
Geo. L. Arnold, The University Bank of Los Angeles. 
J. Franken field. Pres., California Bank. 
K. CoHN & Co., Commission Merchants. 
J. H. Braly, Cashier, Savings Bank, South California. 
J. F. MouLTON, Esq., Second Assistant Cashier, The Bank 
of California, San Francisco. 



SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA RAILWAY COMPANT. 

Los Angeles, 

OcIoIqt 31s^, 1892. 

To WHOM IT may Concern : 

From the railway, Mr. Whiting's fruit trees greet the 



32 Fruit Farming for Profit in California, 



traveller's eye as an orcliard of great beauty, and is one of the 
most noted land- marks that we have near our lines. 

The Los Alisos Valley is fast coming to the front as an impor- 
tant point for fruit and grain shipping, and its present and 
future seems to be an assured fact. Its climate, soil, and p >s- 
sibilities should invite intending emigrants to live in this pleasant 
valley. At our station (El Toro) the shipping facilities are as 
good as at any point along the line of this railway. 

K. H. Wade, General Manager. 



SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA RAILWAY COMPANY. 

L(xnd (xndu Claim Department. 

Room 87, Phillips Block, 

Los A^'GELEs, California. 

Octoher rstJi, 1892. 
To THE General Public and Intending Settlers : 

This is to certify that El Toro and vicinity (The Los Alisos 
Valley), for soil and climate, is one of the most favoured spots 
in South California. The orchards of Mr. Whiting and others are 
conclusive to this point. It is a valley of peaceful quiet and 
prosperous homes. 

Very respectfully, 

A. G. Maginnis, 

Land and Claim Agent. 



SUPERIOR COURT, DEPARMENT 6. 

Los Angeles, California. 

Octoher 18th, 1892. 

J, W. McKinley, Judge. 

T. H. Ward, Clerk. 

To WHOM IT MAY CoNCER'T : 

I have known Mr. D wight Whiting, of El Toro, intimately 
for the past nine years, during six years of which time he was a 
client of mine. 



Fruit Farming for Profit in California. 33 



He is a straiglitforward and honourable gentleman, whose in- 
tegrity is above qnestion. I commend him and his word to the 
public. 

J. W. McKlNLEY. 



AXAHEIM, 

Ooio'ber Will, 1892. 

My dear Sik : 

The elevation, combined with the salnbrions even climate 
and pure water of your home Eanche, at El Tore make it a very de- 
sirable place to live in, and one of the best for those suffering from 
throat or lung troubles, or run down from overwork. In jour 
own case you know your asthma keeps you from living elsewhere. 

J. H. BULLARD, M.D. 

Mr. Dwight WhitiDg. 
El Toro. 



Anaheim, California. 

OdoUr 1892. 

To WHOM IT MAY CONCERN : 

I have known the Ranche called The Canada de los Alisos 
for the last thirty years, and have frequently visited the same. 

After Mr. Whiting bought the Eanche, he planted a great 
number of fruit trees, all of which grew most luxuriously. I must 
say that I never have seen such a large body of trees grow so 
evenly and so finely in such a short time, and, what is most wonder - 
ful, without irrigation. This shows that the land must be of the 
best alluvial soil, which is not only very rich and retains moisture 
well, but is of the most valuable soils for all kinds of fruit trees. 
Bananas, roses, in fact everything planted shows an immense 
healthy growth. 

The whole place, including the live stock, shows that Mr. 
Whiting is an excellent manager, and good judge of soil. 

A. Langenberger. 



C 



34 Fmit Farming for Profit in California. 



COMMERCIAL BANK OF SANTA ANA. 

Santa Ana, California. 

Ociohev UtJi, 1892. 

To WHOM IT MAY CONCERN : 

Mr. Dwight Whiting of El Toro is well known in this coun- 
try as a reliable and successful Orchardist, one has only to fee 
his property to realize what this means. 

Everything pertaining to his home place is of the highest order. 

N, Palmer, President. 
B. G. Balcom, Cashier. 



BANK OF ANAHEIM. 

Anaheim, California. 

October I3th, 1892. 

To WHOM IT MAY CONCERN : 

Mr. Dwight Whiting of El Toro, in this Orange County, is 
known by all to be a reliable and industrious citizen. His farm- 
ing operations speak for themselves. 

Plez James, 

President. 



COLLINS FRUIT COMPANY, 

Packers and Shippers of Sunset Brand 
California Fruits y Nuts and Produce. 

Santa Ana, California, 

September Uth, 1892. 

Mr. Dwight Whiting, 
Dear Sir : 

I take pleasure in saying I have seen and carefully exa- 
mined your prune apricot and pear orchard, and am free to say you 
have the finest orchard for the age in Southern California. The 
trees are in a healthy, thrifty condition, have been well taken care 



Fruit Farming for Profit in California, 35 



of, are of the very best varieties for profit, and will undoubtedly 
produce in a few years an enormous amount of fine fruit. The 
soil is of good quality and seems to be well adapted to the growing 
of deciduous fruits. We bought your apricots this last season of 
1S92, and they were the finest we had from any source. I would 
be proud to be the possessor of your orchard. 

Yours truly, 

C. C. Collins, 
President Collins Fruit Company. 



Office of 
ASSESSOR OF ORAXGE COUNTY. 

Santa Ana, California, 

September Srdy 1892. 
I know the four-year old orchard of Mr. D wight Whiting, 
siruated near El Toro, and can truthfully say there is none finer 
in Orange County. 

Jacob Eoss, 

AsHcssor. 



Office of 

HORTICULTURAL COMMISSIOXERS, ORAXGE COUXTY. 

Santa Ana, California, 

September lOth, 1892. 
I have inspected Mr. Dwight Whiting's prune, pear, and apricot 
orchards, planted in December, 1888, and know them to be healthy 
and free from insect pests. The soil is of best quality, the trees 
are thrifty, and its future prospects are of the best. 
I. X. Raffeett, 

Inspector and Secretary of 

Horticultural Commissioners. 

c 2 



36 Fruit FarmiJig for Profit in California. 



Office of 

SCHOOL BOARD OF ORANGE COUNTY. 

Santa Ana, California, 

September Uli, 1893. 
From a carefal inspection of El Toro School District and its 
surronndings I am thoroughly convinced, that as regard location 
and healthfulness, it is one of the best in Orange Coantj, Its 
school facilities are excellent. 

Respectfully, 

J. P. Greeley, 

Superintendent of Schools. 



Santa Ana, California, 

Septemler 1th, 1892. 

Dear Sir : 

I am well acquainted with your four-years-old prune 
orchard, and consider the same to be as healthy and thrifty as any 
in Orange County. The soil is first-class and suitable for any 
grain or fruit farming. 

Yours respectfully, 

Geo. E. Freeman, 

Justice of the Peace. 

Mr. D wight Whiting, 
El Toro. 



Santa Ana, California, 

Septemler m, 1892. 

Dear Sir : 

While visiting your El Toro Ranche a short time since I was 
struck with its admirable location. The adjacent mountains 
form a fitting background for the beautiful valley below. The 
valley itself is one of the most pleasant and healthful in Southern 
California. Almost in sight of the coast extremes of temperature 
are unknown. 

While the moisture of the ground is considerable, as your 



Fruit Fanning for Profit in California. 37 



flourishing orcliard proves, and, bj the way, yonr Frencli prune 
trees are not excelled in the State. The atmosphere is so dry 
that malaria cannot exist. 

Those snfTering from chronic affections, where an even climate 
is desirable, can find no more desirable place than the xiliso 
Valley. 

Yours truly, 

C. D. Ball, M.D. 

Mr. Dwight Whiting, 
El Toro, 



Office of 

WHITE AND HANKEY, FRUIT JOBBERS, &o. 

Santa Ana Calif, 

Septemier 5th, 1892. 

We the undersigned desire to state that we have seen Dwight 
Whiting's four-year old prune orchard at El Toro, and know it to 
be one of the finest in the State. 

White and Han key, 
Fruit Jobbers and Commission Merchants, 

Office, 411, North Main Street. 



ORANGE COUNTY. 

Santa Ana, California, 

September 7th, 1892. 
I, the undersigned, know the orchard owned by Dwight Whiting 
at El Toro, Orange County, California, to be as good and thrifty 
a }Oung orchard as there is in the county. 

Joseph Yoch, 

CLaiiman of Beard of Supervisors. 



38 Fruit Fanning for Profit in California. 



SUPEKIOR COUHT OF OEANGE COUNTY. 

Santa Ana, California, 

October I2th, 1892. 

To WHOM IT MAY CONCERN : 

Being advised that Mr. Dwiglit Whiting intends to colonize 
a portion of his Ranche, I cheerfully certify that it is well and 
popularly known as a tract where successful farming and fruit- 
raising is carried on, and in my judgment merits high praise. 

As to its orchards, buildings, live-stock, and soil, there are 
none better. It is convenient to markets, and to the Southern 
California Railway, and also near the Ocean, and these make the 
location desirable to those who would make pleasant homes in 
successful pursuits. 

J. W. Towner, 
Judge of the Superior Court. 



ORANGE COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 

Santa Ana, 

October nth, 1892. 
To Investors and to whom it may Concern: 

I have but recently made a visit to the home Ranche of 
Mr, Dwight Whiting, situated at El Toro in the Los Alisos Valley 
in this county, and it is with pleasure that I can testify as to its 
appearance and promise. The place shows the best of care, and 
the soil appears to be the most fertile. The orchard of prunes, 
pears, and apricots, is in the best of order, with no weeds visible, 
nor do I know of a better pruned or cultivated orchard in 
Southern California, or one of greater promise. It would be 
very hard to estimate its present or future value in dollars, and 
if I were the owner of it I would be loth to part with it at any 
price. 

The orchard can be enlarged to many times its present size, 
as there are plenty of acres of the same quality of soil about it. 

The houses, barns and buildings upon the place are convenient 
and comfortable, a characteristic not always seen on Ranches in 
Western America; while the climate which pervades all this 
section is the best that the world affords. Nor do I hesitate for 
a moment in recommending the Ranche of Mr. Whiting for 



Fruit Farming for Profit in California. 39 

horticulture to aDjone who desires to enter that line of agri- 
culture. 

F. W. Sanborx, 

District Attorney. 



Department Xo. 2. 
SUPERIOE COUET, LOS ANGELES COUNTY. 

Los Angeles, California, 

Octoler 20th, 1892. 

W. H. Clark, Judge. 

To WHOM IT MAY CONCERN : 

I personally know Mr. Dwight Whiticg, of El Toro, Orange 
County, California, and Lave visited his Fruit Farm " in that 
township. His large orchard shows care and attention, and will, 
I think, prove a great snccegs, and a source of revenue to its 
fortunate owner. 

Mr. Whiting I know to be a responsible man, and a good and 
industrious citizen, 

^Y. n. Clark. 



SAN JUAN COMPANY. 

Special Brand- — ■Virgin Olive Oil — Glace Fruits — Sweet Pickle, 
Figs, Apricot and Fig Jams, &c. 

A. Belyohj), President . Agents— 'S. K. Aeltsby Co., 

J. Clakke, Vics-President. New Yo:k, Chicago, and 'Frisco. 
J. L. Tkuslgw. Treai^vi\r. 
E. P. HoxLE, Manager and Secretary. 

San Juan, 

Capisteano, Califoenia, 

Sejjtembcr 13th, L892. 

Deab Me. Whiting : 

You have asked me to pass a word on your Eanche and fruit. 
The Ranche is one of the most pleasing horticultural features 
between SanDiego and Los Angeles — as all who travel by the Santa 
FeEailroad can testify. I write about the fruit with pleasure, 
and hope it may do you service. From m.y standpoint, as a con- 
fcerver of fruits, and an actual user of your products (apricotf) 
I am in a position to speak authoritatively. For several years I have 



40 Fruit Farming for Profit in California. 



given up using any fruits tliat have heen ir rigated. Wlien put in the 
kettles, these irrigated fruits break to pieces, or require so much 
cooking as to turn them dark, with consequent loss of flavour. 
For three seasons we have sent as far as Lakeside El Cajon 
Valley, about seventy-fire miles away, to a Mr, W. H. Ferry, to 
get his non-irrigated figs. This because our fig trees don't yield 
suflaciently yet. Your own friends can testify what our apricot 
jam was like from your fruit. I think we shipped, for you, 
to Sussex, England, Paris, Boston, &c., &o. And so it will be with 
your other fruits. They stand shipment better 100 per cent, than 
the watery fruits. 

The product of such farms as yours will always bring a better 
price than irrigated fruits. 

One other point, and a valuable one, your Eanche costs 50 per 
cent, less to work than irrigated farms, because every time we 
irrigate we have to work our land, and the same with other 
irrigated Ranches. 

There are trees which must be watered in this country, viz. 
the citrus family, &o., deciduous — no ! 

Hoping these remarks may be of service to you, 

I am, yours truly, 

E. Petrie Hoyle. 

X B. — I have lived in New Zealand, South Africa, Texas, and 
have yet to find a better climate or life more easy than in Orange 
County, California. 

DwiGHT Whiting, Esq., 

El Tore, California. 



SANTA FE ROUTE. 

OJice of Passenger and Traffic Manager, 
Chicago, III., 

JSovemher 2ndj 18£2. 

To WHOM IT MAY CONCERN : 

The bearer, Mr. E. P. Hoyle, is connected with and represents 
the interests of Mr. Whiting, a large land-owner in El Toro 
Valley in Southern California. He has credentials that should be 
entirely satisfactory to anybody with whom he may have to deal 
in connection with the business which he has in hand, but I de« 



Fruit Fanning for Profit in California, 41 



sire to supplement the same to the extent of stating that I know 
him personally and also know the property that he represents, and 
that I know of no more desirable locality for anyone to settle in 
who may be interested in fruit farming, whether for pleasure or 
pro6t, and sincerely recommend him and his scheme to anyone 
interested in the matters he has to present. 

W. F. White, 

General Manager. 
N.B. — Mr. Hoyle has power of attorney from Mr. Whiting. 



OKAXGE COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 

Capistrano, 

September 23//i, 1892. 

To WHOM IT MAY CoXCERN : 

I have been acquainted with Mr. D wight Whiting of El 
Toro, Orange County, California, for about twelve years, and can 
vouch for his character and high standing in this community. I 
have also known the property owned by him in the Rancho 
Canada do Los Alisos for twenty-five years. A portion of the 
lot numbered One of the subdivision of the above-named Ranche, 
which lot contains 558 acres, has been farmed by Mr. Whiting for 
four or five years, about 120 acres being planted with fruit trees, 
and his success as a horticulturist has been a subject of general 
remark in the county. The quality of the soil is excellent, and is 
especially adapted to the growth of all kinds of deciduous fruits. 
An important line of railway runs through the property, which is 
located within about eight miles of the ocean, the climate being as 
healthful and pleasant as the most favourably located section of 
Southern California. 



42 Fruit Fanning for Profit in California. 



EL TOEO. 

A L-^nd of Beauty and Great ProdactiTeness - The D wiorht Whiting 
Eanche- — One of the Finest Ranches in Southern California — 
A Large and Flourishing Orchard Grown without Irrigation 
— A Brief Description of the Los Alisos Valley — Possibilities 
of this Section as a Fruit Producing Country — A Description 
of the "\Yhitiug Home Place — Some ( Li Landmarks of the 
Missionary Fathers — £1 Toro and its Advantages. 

(From Dcdly Blade, of September 8th.) 

A PJDE of twenty minutes, yesterday, over the line 
of the Sante Fe, brought a representative of the Blade 
to El Toro, a little village in the centre of Los Alisos 
valley, one of the most picturesque sections of Southern 
California, 

Near El Toro. a distance of only 1000 feet from the 
depot, is the home of 3Ir. D^vight Whiting, and the 
knight of the quill made a bee-line for that gentleman's 
residence, knowing that there he would be royally 
entertained. Fortunate in finding ]\Ir. "Whiting at 
home, he was soon enjoying his hospitality. 

Mr. "Whiting's Pianche consists of 8500 acres, and 
comprises almost all kinds of soil, from the rich, alluvial 
valley to the rocky, barren mountains ; but most of the 
land owned by Mr. Whiting is susceptible of cultivation, 
for out of the whole tract but 20U0 acres are in the 
hills. 

The farmhouse, or bungalow, occupied by the owner 
of the Eanche, is a one-story frame building, covering a 



Fruit Fanning for Profit in California. 43 



large area of ground ; and while not really pleasing to tlie 
eye, from an architectural point of view, is convincing 
to the mind that the house was built for comfort. The 
structure contains fourteen rooms besides a bath, and 
water is piped to all parts of the house. The fur- 
nishings are elegant, and ease and comfort can be 
enjoyed to the fullest measure within the walls of the 
Whiting farmhouse. 

In the sitting-room stands the family clock, an 
immense mechanical contrivance, ticking the hours of 
the day away, the mellow tones of which, as it rings 
out the hours, are pleasant to hear. In the corner is 
the old fireplace, around which the whole family may 
gather, while they watch the immense log burning into 
ashes and listen to the stories told on a winter's 
evening. Large Turkish couches are scattered here 
and there, and all that taste and refinement could 
suggest are found here. 

On the east and south sides of the house and extend- 
ing half around, is a broad veranda, and creeping up 
over its walls are trailing vines of ivy and honeysuckle, 
whilst easy wicker chairs and settees are placed upon 
the piazza, temptingly inviting the visitor to rest and 
view the landscape o'er from this j)lace of vantage. 
The offer is too alluring to refuse, and so we sink 
into a mammoth wicker chair and cast our eyes over 
the country spread out before us. 

The view afforded is at once pleasing to the eye and 
mind, and we soon lose ourselves in day-dreaming of 
the beauties and productiveness of this glorious sunset 
land. 

An invitation extended by Mr. Whiting to accompany 



44 Fruit Fanning for Profit in California. 

him on a tour of inspection of tlie farm is accepted 
witli alacrity, and so, following the gentleman, we soon 
find onrself in a new and well-constructed ten-room 
cottage, a short distance from the farmhouse, and but 
recently completed. The dwelling is situated on a 
little eminence, and is furnished with every modern 
convenience. A telephone connects the two houses, 
and thus the occupants communicate with each other 
at will. This dwelling, too, has a broad veranda, ex- 
tending around the south and east portions, and from 
this point the city of Santa Ana can be seen almost 
any clear day. 

Surrounding both houses are beautiful flower 
gardens, and the pretty coloured flowers are now in 
full bloom. Overhanging the farmhouse are grand old 
pepper and gum-trees affording a most grateful shade ; 
and here, in the quiet of country life, listening to the 
songs of birds, breathing God's pure, fresh air, heavily 
laden with the perfume of most beautiful flowers, has 
Mr. Whiting selected his home place. 

From the dwelling houses we proceeded to the barn, 
a well-constructed building filled with hay and grain. 
The barn is divided into three compartments— a 
carriage house, in which is kept some very fine vehicles ; 
a hay department, filled with hay, and a carpenter's 
shop with blacksmith's shop adjacent. There is also a 
stable, and two grain warehouses are well filled with 
golden grain. In a little corral, off from the main 
barn, is kept Jumbo, a fine, large, roan Percheron 
stallion, weighing 1600 pounds. He is a beautiful 
specimen of horseflesh, and Mr. Whiting is justly 
proud of him. The gentleman takes a great pride in 



Fmit Fanning for Profit in California. 45 



the raising of fine horses, and lias on his Eanche some 
of the best stock we have ever seen. He now has 
twelve or fourteen fine, large brood mares, weighing 
from 1300 to 1600 pounds, and half-a-dozen geldings 
and saddle horses. He drives a fine, large, chestnut- 
sorrel mare that trots along at the rate of a mile every 
three or four minutes easily, and is a grand specimen 
of horseflesh. 

Around the barnyard struts the stately gobbler, 
and by his side quacks- the snow-white duck, while 
hundreds of chickens can be seen all about us. Houdans 
are principally raised by Mr. Whiting, and the poultry 
department of this Eanche is of no small importance. 

Water is piped to the houses, barns and other build- 
ings from a never-failing spring, which is located in 
the foothills three miles from the house. The water is 
pure, sparkling and cold, and an abundant supply can 
be had for all purposes. 

By the side of the barn grows a row of stately 
banana trees, their giant leaves rustling in the wind 
and showing that in this land of sunshine tropical 
fruits will flourish and grow to perfection. 

But little attention is j)aid to the raising of cows 
or butter-making, but on the Eanche we found half a 
dozen Shorthorn and Jersey cows — all of the best 
grade. A Jersey bull is also kept here. 

Mr. Whiting's chief pride is his orchard, and well 
may he feel proud of it, for probably in all Southern 
California there cannot be found its superior. Just a 
little below the house the rows of prune trees commence, 
and they stretch away to the south for half a mile, and 
to the west for at least a quarter of a mile. There can- 



46 Fruit Farming for Profit iji California, 



not be found in all this great State— famous for its 
orcliards — a more healthy, better kept one than that 
owned by Mr, AYhiting ; and be it remembered, that in 
this country, vrhere irrigation is thought to be so 
necessary to the successful o-rowino- of fruits, the owner 
of this orchard has proven, beyond peradventure of a 
doubt, that irrigation is not necessary, for he uses no 
artificial means to water his fruit trees, depending only 
upon the rains sent down from heaven and thorough 
cultivation to reach the high state of perfection that 
his orchard has attained. Xot a tree but that looks 
the picture of health, and the orchard, which will have 
been set out four years in December, is evidence of 
what this land will do. 

The orchard consists of 100 acres of Freiich prunes, 
ten acres of apricots, five acres of Bartlett pears, ten 
acres of chestnuts and pecans, ten acres of soft shell 
walnuts, five or six acres of an assorted family orchard, 
and an acre nursery of nut-bearing trees. 

Even this year the trees bore a very fine crop con- 
sidering their age, and from now on the income from 
this orchard will be extremely remunerative and highly 
gratifying. That walnut trees will grow without irriga- 
tion is demonstrated by the results obtained by Mr. 
"Whiting, for his ten acre walnut grove looks most 
flourishino'. In a few more vears this orchard will be 
yielding an immense income, and it is now the pride of 
Orange county. 

Getting into a buggy, we drive along beside the rows 
of graceful fruit trees up to the top of a little hill, 
south of the farm-houses and orchard. Eeaching the 
eminence, and casting our eyes back over the country 



Fruit Farming for Profit in California, 47 

we have just driven througli, tlie view is cliarming. 
At our feet is a cornfield, whose stalks are rustling in 
tlie gentle breezes ; a little further on, and the orchard, 
whose trees are still clothed in their leafy dress of 
green, stretches away for a half mile northward ; the 
farm-houses, embowered in a grove of trees, and 
surrounded by beau.tiful gardens, invite to rest the 
tired traveller ; and a little further on can be seen the 
railroad track, the steel rails glistening in the sunlight, 
and marking out the pathway over which the iron 
horse speeds, uniting in bonds of friendship, communi- 
cation, and commerce neighbouring towns, cities, and 
states. Near by is the pretty little church with its 
spire pointing heavenward, and showing that in this 
land of beauty, where God has done so much. His great 
goodness is not forgotten, but, on the contrary, that 
His praises are sung and His goodness glorified in this 
little house erected to His service. In the distance 
towers the grand old mountains, in whose canyons the 
wild deer frolic in their native ranges— and all in all 
the view is grand and beautiful. 

We drive on through a large grain-field, and pause 
for a moment under a giant sycamore tree, and in front 
of an ice cold spring that, could it speak, would tell 
a tale of great interest. It would tell us how the now 
deserted^ almost forgotten, little wooden box wdiich is 
sunk in the earth, and which holds its now black and 
muddy waters, was placed there many years ago by the 
early residents of this country. It could tell with 
what pleasure the weary traveller hailed the sight of 
the old sycamore trees, for under their grateful shade 
they knew they could rest, and quench their thirst with 



48 F] icit Farming for Profit in California. 



the cool waters from tliis very spring. It would tell of 
how the stages of the overland line, which in early 
days ran from San Francisco to St. Louis, would stop 
here to water the horses at this spring, and for the 
passengers also to quench their thirst. Now the old 
stage line has been superseded by the railroads, and 
this spring, then so highly prized, is neglected and 
unused. 

A little further on, and we cross Los Alisos creek, 
whose banks are fringed with sycamore trees, and whose 
waters flow along the eastern boundary line of the 
Eanche. This creek is one of the principal water-ways 
of the county. It was on its banks, and near the S23ring 
just mentioned, that the missionary fathers burned the 
lime used for constructing the old mission at Capis- 
trano. The old kiln still stands, and the wood used for 
kindling the fires was gotten near by. Many an old 
legend could be told of this historic place, but the sur- 
vivors of these early days are few now, most of them 
having passed into the great unknown. 

Our drive is continued on through the fields, and no 
other stop is made until the house of the foreman, 
situated on the eastern edge of the orchard, and in the 
midst of a grove of sycamore trees, is reached. The 
building is a comfortable structure consisting of six 
rooms, and is most conveniently arranged. 

We drive along again, and over to an adobe build- 
ing, which was built over one hundred years ago. 
It was erected for a former owner of the Eanche — 
Don Juan Serano — and surrounding it are giant pear, 
apricot, and olive trees planted more than a century 
ago by the early settlers and still bearing large crops. 



Frtlit Farming for Profit in California, 49 

Further up the mountain side we drive, and turning 
our eyes southward the broad expanse of waters can be 
seen^ and the Pacific Ocean stretches out before our 
gaze, its blue surface finally seeming to unite in a 
band of azure blue with the cloudless sky above. 

The valley of the Los xllisos, in which this Eanche is 
situated, is a beautiful and fertile part of Orange 
county ; and the home-place of Mr. Whiting, consisting 
of five hundred and fifty acres, is made up of the most 
fertile j)art of this valley. • One year the farming land 
is planted to corn, producing from seventy-five to one 
hundred bushels to the acre, and the next year it is 
planted to barley, producing from twenty-five to thirty 
centals per acre. 

There are thousands of cords of wood upon the Eanche 
enough for all time ; and game, sucli as quail and 
doves, and geese, ducks and swan, abound in their 
season. 

Of course the climate in this part of the State is too 
well known to make it necessary to say aught of praise 
for the climate of the Los Alisos valley. Situated as 
it is but seven miles from the Pacific Ocean, the sea 
breezes temper the heat of summer and the cold of 
winter, and the climate is as near perfection as one 
could desire. 

Tennis and croquet grounds are found near the farm- 
house, and every convenience looking to the comfort 
and pleasure of its dwellers is furnished. 

The Pianche is well fenced and cross-fenced, and every 
improvement made has been of a permanent character. 

Near the house is a half-acre vegetable garden, and 
as this Eanche is in the thermal belt, vegetables can be 



50 Fruit Farjjiijig for Profit iji California. 

raised all tlirougli the year, so that green peas and 
tomatoes are enjoyed in the midst of our Californian 
winters, which, of course, would hardly be called 
winters, in comparison with the rigorous seasons of 
other countries. 

As the shadows of evening had already commenced 
to fall over the earth we returned to the farmhouse, 
and upon the broad verandah listened to many in- 
teresting stories told us by the owner of the Eanche. 

The farmhouses arc only one thousand feet from the 
station at El Toro. where telegraphic communication 
can be had with all points of the outside world. 
ScVcral ':^ai::s i:as- through this place every day, so 
that transportation facilities are unsurpassed. 

A daily mail is received, and "Wells. Fargo and Co, 
have an agent here, and a general merchandise store 
enables the farnirrs to do th-ir trading in El Toro. 

A grammar „r:. 'r rnblic schord is maintained, and 
the school luii:n:^ i. of th. mos^ sub^antial schoul 
buildings in the eonniy. Thirty-live pupils attend, and 
the school is in a most tlourishing condition. 

There is also a neat Episcopal Church, presided over 
by Rev. G-corge Eobinson. late of London. England, 
but now of Tustin and El Toro. 

The little town is growing, and many new homes 
have been built there in recent vears. Amono' those 
now living in this section and cultivating farms are : — 
L. H. Colemam L. K. Scott. A. HealeyfL. Stephens. 
Mrs. N. Long. J. W. Thompson. AVm. 3IcKinzie. iMr. 
L)e Long. Arthur Scott. Chas. Salter. Eugene Salter, 
and others. S. H. Cope (formerly of England: has 
recently erected a neat S3000 house on the bungalow 
style. 



Fruit Farming for Profit in California. 5 1 

There is every reason to believe that in a short time 
El Toro will be a place of considerable importance. 
Back of and surrounding it is a country famous for its 
productiveness, and only waiting for the hand of man 
to cultivate its now untilled acres. There is a suffi- 
ciency of water for all purposes ; the climate is unex- 
celled ; the surroundings are pleasant, and communica- 
tion with the great trade centres excellent. There is 
no reason why the Los Alisos valley will not, in a few 
years, be a veritable garden of Eden. 

Mr. Whiting, in his orchard, has proven that fruit 
will grow here to perfection without irrigation, which 
is certainly proof enough that the soil is productive. 
In a short time orchards will be found on every hand, 
for there is great profit in the cultivation of fruit. 
Barley, corn, wheat and oats can be raised with profit, 
for the soil produces large crops of all. Nuts of all 
kinds can be produced here, too, and the best of all 
without irrigation. 

In company with Mr. Whiting we drive down from 
the farmhouse to the station, and the whistling of the 
approaching train tells us to bid our agreeable host 
good-bye ; and as we climb aboard the train and seat 
ourself comfortably in the car, we know that our day 
has been pleasantly spent; and we realize that Mr. 
Whiting has one of the best Eanches in California, and 
that El Toro and Orange county have a bright future 
ahead. 

A "Beet Sugar Factory, 

There are a number of enterprising citizens of Santa 
Ana and vicinity who are determined to secure a beet 

D 2 



52 F licit Farming for Profit in California. 

sugar factory for this place if possible, and are using 
their best endeavours to further that end. The plan 
they suggest is to form a joint stock company with 
capital sufficient to start the enterprise ; also a beet 
producers' company. The capital stock company to re- 
ceive a fair rate of interest, and the producers' company 
to receive a reasonable compensation for their beet pro- 
duction. The profits, if any, from the enterprise to be 
divided between the capital invested and the producers. 
The object of the projectors is to start the enterprise 
as cheaply as possible, and build up as prosperity and 
success demand. The idea is a good one, and practicable 
on its face, and all it wants is push. 



Fmit Fanning for Profit in California. 53 



WHAT THE NEWSPAPERS SAY ABOUT 
FEUIT GEOWING AND ITS PEOFITS. 

While we believe the profits appearing in the fol- 
lowing items to be true reports in every instance, we 
do not wish to infer that they are enjoyed by all 
orchardists ; but having been done by growers in all 
corners of California, we argue that they can be done 
again by others v/ho try : — 

PnuxES. 

[July qnotatior, 1892^ 

A number of prune growers have told us this week 
that unless they get §35 a ton for their fruit they 
will dry their own crop, for prunes are the easiest fruit 
we have to dry and pack for market. Several growers 
will hold for §38 a ton, because they have had letters 
from prune growers in Northern California who have 
contracted to sell at that price. — Pomona Progress. 

[Angust quotations, 1S92. 

Prices still CUmhing, 

The prices on deciduous fruits still continue to climb 
up the scale in a manner pleasing for the fruit grower 
to contemplate. The cannery and evaporator at On- 
tario are contracting for peaches at §30 a ton, and there 



54 . Fi'iiit Fanning for Profit iit California, 



is a lively demand for prunes at $40 and $45 a ton. 
Son:e of tlie growers are holding out for $50, and it is 
reported that as high as $52 has already been offered 
for a few choice lots. The market for raisins also 
promises to be good; h\ cents is already offered for 
sultanas.- — PA oenix, 

ViSALiA Prune Crop. — C. J. Berry, in Visalia 
Times : — Last year our prune crop was not so large as 
it had been in previous years, but it was good enough 
to pay a profit of $300 or $400 per acre, even at the 
low price of fruit. This year the crop is simply im- 
mense. In the older orchards, trees seven years old 
will average 700 lbs. of fruit to the tree. It will be 
safe to make the statement that some of the trees will 
yield 1000 and up to 1200 lbs. At the present price 
of prunes, there are 900 trees on the Briggs' orchard, 
situated near the city, that will yield the owner at 
least $9000. The orchard is under the supervision of 
M. J. Eouse, who was the manager in 1890, when one 
prune tree yielded 1102 lbs. I wish to say right here 
that Mr. Piouse's ideas of pruning a tree and mine 
coincide. Orchardists cannot pay too much attention 
to their pruning, as on it depends to a great extent 
its crop. The entire crop of fruit of this orchard 
is simply immense. One would scarcely be believed 
if he were to tell the bare truth. To an amateur 
fruit grower any large statement is accepted, but 
to a practical fruit grower the production of the fruit- 
trees of our Visalia district is phenomenal. I'll venture 
the statement there is one Moorkark apricot tree on 
the Briggs' orchard that will yield one ton of fruit. 

Following is the affidavit of Mr. Clarke, supple- 



Fruit Farming for Frofit in California. 5 5 



mented by that of Messrs. Harrell, Giddings, and 
Thomas, viz. : — 

State of California, 

County of Tulare. 

C. W. Clarke, having duly sworn, deposes and says : 
My name is C. AV. Clarke ; I reside in the city of Sacra- 
mento, California. I have resided there for the forty 
years past. That on the 1st day of September, 1890, 
in company with several other gentlemen, I went to 
the Briggs' orchard, situate on sec. 9, t 19 s, r 25e, M. 
D. B. and M., about four miles south-east from Visalia, 
Tulare county, California ; that while there we had 
gathered the product of one tree of the French prune 
variety, which said tree is six years old ; that from 
said tree I saw gathered, cleaned, and weighed 1102 lbs. 
of prunes, and I am confident that many other trees in 
same orchard, of same variety and age, will produce as 
many, if not more, pounds of prunes than the one 
whose product I saw gathered and weighed. 

C. W. Clarke. 

Sworn and subscribed to before me, this 2nd day of 
September, 1890. 

G. A. BOTSFORD, 

Notary Public. 



State of California, 

County of Tulare. 
Jasper Harrell, President of Harrell and Son's Bank, 
Visalia, C. J. Giddings, cashier of Bank of Visalia, 
I. H. Thomas, member of the State Board of Horticul- 



56 Fruit Fanning for Profit in California. 



ture, being duly sworn each for himself, says : I have 
read the affidavit of C. W. Clarke, hereto attached, I 
was present with said C. W. Clarke at said Briggs' 
orchard at the time product of said French prune tree 
was gathered, cleaned, and weighed, and know of my 
own knowledge that all statements made in said 
affidavit of said C. W. Clarke are true. 

Jaspeh Haerell, 

C. J. GiDDINGS, 

I. H. Thomas. 

Sworn and subscribed to before me this 2nd day of 
September, 1890. 

G. A. B3TSFonD, 

Notary Public, 

It is announced by the Selma Enterprise that Mr. T. 
F. Newell, one mile from that place, realized last year 
$800 from less than two acres of prunes. Mr. Newell 
has a large apple orchard, whose crop for the present 
season has been contracted to a dealer at one cent per 
lb., insuring a return of $3 to $3.50 from each tree. 

Favourable Feports from tlie Prune Orchards — 
A Great Yield, 

The reports from the prune orchards are coming in 
fast, now that the harvesting of the crop is well under 
way. Many deciduous fruit experts who have visited 
Pomona Valley say that nowhere in Santa Clara Valley 
(near San Jose) is there such good land for the produc- 
tion of the prune as in the Pomona Valley, and this 



Fruit Farming for Profit hi California. 57 



year's crop again demonstrates the large profits there 
are in growing prunes. There are several hundred 
acres of French prune orchards in this place that have 
borne this season crops worth over §230 an acre, and 
there are a large number of orchards that have pro- 
duced fruit which has sold at the rate of §280 this 
season, when the crop is not unusually large either. 
We hear of some prune orchards that run from §325 to 
§350 an acre. Eli W. Keller has sold the crop from 
his French (or petite) prune orchard of six acres for 
§2450. Louis Keller has gathered §5 worth of fruit 
from many a tree in his orchard, which is of ten acres, 
and is seven years old. He got §1900 for his crop in 
the orchard when it was but five years old. The Fill- 
more orchard, south of this city, has produced a prune 
crop that has sold for §375 an acre this month, and it 
is only eight years old. There are quite a number of 
prune orchards in Pomona Valley that have paid for 
themselves, and all the care upon them from their start 
to bearing age by the crops they have borne in 1890 
and 1892. The Packard prune orchard yielded fruit 
worth §345 an acre in 1890, and a crop worth about 
§450 an acre this year. Mr. Packard says he would 
rather have 75 acres of good prune trees than 100 acres 
of oranges. There is more clear money for him in his 
prune trees than in his oranges. — Pomona Progress. 

Three of the largest prune producers in California 
have combined to form a company, with a capital of half 
a million dollars, to cultivate about 710 acres of prunes. 
— Fruit Trade Journal^ London, England, 

The Howe prune orchard of ten acres has produced 
a crop that has sold for §3700 this year. It is eight 



58 Fniit Farming for Profit in California. 



years old. Two years ago it bore a crop tliat netted the 
owner §294 an acre. — Sana Blade, 

The Egan prune orchard on Fifth Street is eight 
years okl. It has netted its owner this year $456 an 
acre. It paid §318 an acre in 1890, and §20 D an acre 
last year. 

H. J. St. John's orchard in the Kingsley tract has 
brought its owner nine and one-third tons of fruit per 
acre. The fruit was sold at §53 a ton on the trees, 
and Mr. St. John's profits from his property is §466 an 
acre. He is a greater believer in prunes as a source of 
profit to the orchardist than in oranges. 

The three-acre peach orchard on the old Sherman 
place was bought last September for §950 cash down. 
The crop from the property this year has brought in 
§516. Mr. Allen, the new owner, says he has owned 
farm property in four States in the East during the 
past twenty-six years, and never had such a good pay- 
ing piece of land before. 

Captain J. S. Garcia has a prune orchard of five 
acres that will bring him the nice little sum of §2000 
this year. He has be?n offered §50 a ton for the crop, 
and a very conservative estimate is eight tons to the 
acre ; that means §400 an acre, which is as good as 
oranges. Several other prune orchards in Ontario will 
make nearly as good a sho^Ymg— Ontario Record. 

Laege Yield of Prunes. — Yisalia Delta : Several 
persons from Visalia and elsewhere went to the Brigg5 
orchard to witness the harvesting of the crop of some 
nine-year-old prune trees, and. those who were present 
will sign an affidavit setting forth the facts. After 
arriving at the orchard three trees of the French- 



Fruit Farming for Profit in California, 59 

prune variety, near togatlier, were selected. Some of 
the fruit had fallen and was gathered in boxes, and 
then the trees were shaken, the fruit cleaned of twigs 
and leaves and placed in boxes to be weighed. The first 
tree shaken yielded 812 pounds, but a considerable 
amount was left on the tree. The next tree bore 984 
pounds, and the third 1017. One large limb of the last 
tree, heavily laden with fruit, had been taken away. 
The total product of the three harvested amountel to 
2813 pounds, and the average was 937'66 pounds. 
With 64 trees to the acre this would give a yield of 
60,910 pounds, or 30| tons. As 2*65 "pounds of fresh 
prunes are required to make one pound dried, one acre 
would produce 23,362 pounds ready for market, and at 
11 cents per pound, the present selling price, the gross 
value of the yield of a single acre would reach the 
enormous sum of 82569.82; at 2i cents per pound on 
the ground, for which they could be sold to-day, the 
price of an acre's product would be §1522.75. In the 
Briggs orchard there are 12 acres of prune trees of 
different ages, and several experienced orchardists esti- 
mate the average yield at 600 pounds per tree. There 
are 64 trees to each acre, which would make 38,4C0 
pounds to the acre, the value, which at 2\ cents per 
pound on the ground — the price at which prunes are 
now selling here — would be 8960 per acre, a net profit 
(after allowing for every possible expense and loss) of 
more than 8900 per acre. If dried at the orchard ami 
sold, the value of the crop per acre would he 81593.90, 
and for the twelve acres the enormous sum 0/ 819^126. 8'J 
would he realized. 



6o Fntit Farming for Profit in California. 



Reports from tlce Fruit Growers. 

The 23ears from the Larkin place north of town were 
sent east in the green-fruit shipments. The 107 trees, 
six years old, on one acre yielded six and one half tons 
of pears, that brought a net return of S318. 

The prune orchard, of five acres on the old Sallee 
place, has produced over thirty-three tons of fruit this 
season, and sold for 850 a ton. A cheque for S16871ast 
week was the result of the sale of the prunes. 

The Muir place has yielded eighteen tons of prunes 
from 300 trees — or three acres — this year. The crop 
was dried and sold for 81135, and the clear profit of the 
little orchard is put at 81016 for the past year. 

Mr. Miller reports that from 250 peach-trees of the 
Golden Cling variety, seven years old, he shipped in 
the green-fruit shipments to Chicago 38,270 pounds, or 
over nineteen tons. He got three cents a pound for 
his fruit in Chicago, and the net proceeds of his two and 
one half acres is 8956.75. The property was bought 
in 1889 for 8870. It has brought its present owner 
81490 in the past three years. 

There are many prune trees in the Keller prune 
orchard that have yielded over 200 pounds each, or a 
crop worth between 85 and 86 a tree. One acre of six- 
year-old prune trees was bought in connection with 
other real estate, by John E. Whitney, for 8450 last 
vear. The trees have been literally loaded down with 
fruit this season. All the prunes have been gathered 
and dried by Mr. AYhitney and his family. The dried 
crop was sold on Saturday at ten cents a pound, and a 
cheque for §487 is expected daily. That's the way some 
people get rich. 

P. J. Dreher has sold 8150 worth of fruit from sixty- 



Fruit Farming for Profit iti California. 6i 



five Salway peacli trees, but four years old, on his 
place north of town. 

We hear of many orchards here of French prunes 
that have yielded a crop worth 8200 an acre this 
season, and of a number that have brought their owners 
over §250 net per acre. 

Several orchards of Golden Cling peaches have 
brought their owners about 8275 an acre this year, 
and one or two have brought over §325 an acre. — Losa 
Times. 

The money there is in prune growing by careful and 
industrious orchardists, is only just beginnirg to be 
realized by many of our landowners. In the settlement 
of an estate in San Jose last week, an overseer of a 
Eanche testified that the fifty acres of French prunes 
on the estate had yielded a profit of about §180,000 
in twenty years, or an average of §180 an acre every 
year since the trees were four vears old. Durino' the 
past eight years — since American prunes have forced 
the foreign product out of the market — the fifty acres 
have never brought less than §-125 an acre, and some- 
times nearly §600 an acre. — San Francisco Weekly 
Chronicle, 

Wealth in Prunes, 
Another year has rolled around and added yet an- 
other proof that California is a paradise for the intel- 
ligent and industrious fruit grower. In this year of 
1892 we see what many of us have been arguing for 
ten or a dozen years — that a handsome fortune can be 
made in a decade from 80 or even 40 acres of prunes, 
and big money can be had from 10 and 15 acre prune 
orchards. I propose in this communication to prove 



62 Fniit Farming for Profit in California, 

that any enterprising man with, fair capital can bring 
wealth to his family exchequer from an acreage of 
French prunes. 

Firstly, the trees must be grafted or budded on plum 
stock, and be one or two years old — I prefer one-year- 
old tree">. They must be planted about 25 feet apart, 
requiring 100 trees per acre. Good trees ought to be 
had for 20 cent,:, apiece, or by the thousand for 15 
cents. The holes must be dug from two to three feet 
square, according to the nature of the soil. 

The fourth season after planting, and even the third 
if your trees have been well taken care of, you will 
obtain about 10 pounds of prunes to each tree, enough 
to initiate yourself in the drying business. The fifth 
year you will get about 60 pounds to each tree ; the 
sixth year 120 pounds or more to the tree. After that 
your trees are in full bearing, producing, according to 
location and care, from 150 to 300 pounds to the tree. 

Do not pick the prunes by hand, as they do not ripen 
all at the same time, but in about three weeks. Begin 
to shake your trees towards the 1st of August, then 
every week after, and at the fourth time pick them 
clean. 

Now for drying. The only apparatus needed is an 
iron kettle holding from 25 to 50 gallons of water. 
To each twenty gallons of water add one pound of the 
best American concentrated lye ; have the water boil- 
ing, then take a wire basket of some kind — the home 
made one will do best — put twenty pounds of green 
prunes in your basket, dip them in the boiling kettle, 
let them remain there about one minute, or till you 
perceive that the skin of your prunes are cracked all 



Fruit Farming for Profit in California. 63 

over ; tlien take them out and lay them on a 
tray, and in a week or ten days, according to the 
heat of the sun, your prunes will be dried enough 
to put them loose in any kind of boxes holding 
fifty to seventy-five pounds. The trays can be made 
very cheaply (about ten cents each) with four 
sawed redwood shakes three feet long, nailed on a 
very primitive frame by anybody who ever used a saw 
and hammer. 

Now when your prunes are all dried and you want to 
give them the finishing gloss for the market, do as fol- 
lows : Fill your kettle again with water, but this time 
no lye is wanted, and when the water is boiling steep 
your prunes in it in your wire basket for about a minute 
till every prune is quite hot, then expose them to the 
sun for that day, and the next morning you can pack 
them in boxes or sacks as you prefer. This last steep- 
ing will make your prunes very clear and glossy, and 
will kill every insect and eftectually destroy their 
eggs. 

Profit 

The fifth year you will have lOOO trees bearing at least 60 
pounds each, or 30 tons, equal to 10 tons dried, worth 
10 cents per pound, or S200 per ton . . . . ,2000 

If yon deduct 10 per cent, for labour, you will hare a 
balance of S1800 net, paying for the whole of the in- 
vestment and S300 profit left. 



_TiiAJMxth year you will have 60 tons of green fruit, or 20 tons 

of dried prunes, worth ....... 4000 



64 Fruit Fanning for Profit in California. 



% 

The seventli year yonr trees will be in full bearing, and 
will yield each year from 150 to 200, or even 300 pounds 
to the tree. Each tree will bring yon about $5 net 

• each year or for the orchard 5000 

It does not take miicli perception to see tliat on an 
outlay of not more than $2760, a person can have an 
easy income of $5000 in 10 years' time. I don't know 
of any better and easier way of insuring a large income. 
I have made these figures with care and prudencp on 
the basis of financial results from the profits of my 
own seven-acre prune orchard, and from the figures 
given me by four of the most careful fruit growers 
in Pomona Valley. — (E. C. Thurman, for Rural 
Oalifornian.) 



Almonds. 

An Ojnnion on our Almonds, 

California orchard productions are constantly forging 
ahead and beating the imported article in the leading 
markets of the world. First the California raisin, then 
the prune, peach and walnut. Now the almond is 
crowding the foreign article for supremacy, as is wit- 
nessed by the following correspondence addressed to 
Mr. E. E. Pierson of Banning: — ''Dear Sir, — Our ex- 
perience with California almonds is very satisfactory ; 



i 



Fruit Farming for Profit in California, 65 

in comparison with the Spanish or Tarragona almonds 
we deem them better meats, smoother skin and often 
brighter shells. They are growing in favonr with con- 
sumers. EespectfuUy, Sprague, Warner and Co." 

This is one of the largest produce houses in the East, 
and its opinion, based purely upon an unsentimental 
commercial basis, is of more than passing moment. 

The almond is probably still in the experimental 
stage in California. Still enough has been learned re- 
garding situation that it does best on bench or hillside 
lands free from fogs, and more or less protected from 
direct winds. Mr. A. T. Hatch, of Suison Valley, the 
largest almond planter in the State, says that the 
almond will not grow in the water, nor do well in a 
heavy, poorly drained place, but will flourish and pro- 
duce good crops on soils that are too light or dry to 
grow peaches, apricots, nectarines, or similar pulpy 
fruit. Almonds will make better returns from leaner 
lands than any other crops, except it may be vines, 
olives or figs." 

J. M. Blanchard sends in some Sunland almonds, 
taken from a tree eight years old from the seed, 
from which he has sold this year sixty-two pounds 
of nuts, netting him 89*30. At this rate an acre of 
trees would yield §900. 

California cannot be excelled for raising almonds. 
And for quick returns, and a crop easily, quickly, and 
inexpensively grown, the almond is the one above all 
others. It is the most easily cared for of any kind of 
nut or fruit-bearing tree. It is extremely hardy, and 
the tree needs little or no pruning. The crop may be 
gathered leisurely. There need be no hurry to gather 

E 



66 Fniit Fanning for Profit in California, 

it witliirL a certain time, like there is for fruit. It re- 
quires no experience or practice to harvest the crop, for 
there is no science needed such as there is in handling- 
fruit. We can get our almonds into the Eastern 
markets so much earlier than the importers that we 
have the great advantage over them of being able to 
supply the demand first, and consequently get better 
prices. That is one advantage over imported almonds 
which California hardly needs, for the new varieties of 
almonds now grown are so much larger and more 
beautifully shaped than the old varieties that our 
better-looking nuts sell for higher prices right alongside 
of the foreign article. The Ne Plus Ultra, California 
Paper Shell, I X L and the Nonpareil are the names 
of the better varieties. They commence bearing in 
three and four years. There is little or no labour 
attached to the harvesting of a crop of almonds ; and 
not only that, you can almost choose your own time 
about harvesting — any time after the nuts are ripe ; 
yet it is safer to gather them before any heavy rains 
come. It is liable to blacken them, and make it difficult 
to get them white again. 

California can grow almonds to greater profit than 
anything else. 

After the almonds are separated from the hulls, the 
nuts are bleached by sulphur fumes. The bleaching- 
house of Webster Treat is about 25 by 8 feet, and 4000 
pounds are generally put in at one time and* exposed 
to the fumes of sulphur from four to ten hours, though 
the longer the nuts are bleached the whiter they become. 
Usually in bleaching soft-shells a little water is 
sprinkled over them before being put in the sulphur 



Fmit Fanning fo7^ Profit in California. 67 

house, for tlie purpose of making them bleach whiter. 
Care should be taken not to pnt more sulphur in one 
pan of coals than will completely burn ; for if too 
much sulphur is put in at one time there will not 
be a complete combustion, and the soft-shells on 
being taken out will smell of the sulphur and the 
paper-shell kernels will taste of it. Mr. Webster 
Treat's bleaching-house is boarded with tongue and 
groove inside and out and roofed with well-laid 
shingles. A flue about 2 feet high is on the apex to 
help draft the sulphur fumes up and out. The floor is 
of 1 X 3 set up edgeways, three-eighths of an inch apart, 
or just wide enough to admit the sulphur fumes and 
yet near enough to prevent the nuts falling through. 
The floor is about two and a half feet above the ground, 
the lower space boarded up with tongue and groove 
and fitted with small doors every five feet to admit of 
placing the pans of burning sulphur underneath the floor. 

After being bleached the almonds are put into burlap 
sacks, which can be bought for about 7 cents and hold 
about 55 pounds of almonds. It costs about 2^ cents a 
pound to gather, hull, bleach, sack and haul a couple of 
miles and load on the cars. This is allowing a very 
liberal estimate of the cost, for a gentleman off*ered to 
gather, hull and bleach almonds for If cents per pound, 
and put them in sacks (I to furnish the sacks). A 
carload of almonds, as given by the Southern Pacific 
Company in 1891, is 15,000 pounds at |225 per carload 
and \\ cents for overweight ; this is the rate to Chicago, 
To New York the rate is about $260 per carload, with 
If cents for overweight. With a good machine to do 
the hulling and separating, the cost would be reduced 

E 2 



68 Fruit Farming for Profit in California. 



to I of a cent per poundj whicli is a very liberal 
estimate. 

I do not know how long an almond tree will continue 
to live and bear, but its lifetime is tbree or four times 
longer than that of the peach tree. 

Percy Treat. 
Davisville, Cal, December 16th, 1891. 

Theodore Minturn says : " Of the cost of caring for 
five acres of almonds on his Chowchilla estate, he kept 
a careful record. Every hour's work of ploughing, culti- 
vating, pruning, picking, etc., was noted, and good 
prices charged in the account therefor. The almonds 
were of good quality. They found a ready market, as 
almonds always do ; and after every possible charge 
against these five acres had been allowed for, there 
remained a clear profit of §125 per acre." 

Mrs. Thurston having a Eanche in the Aliso Valley 
south of El Toro, reports that her almond trees average 
her (§10) ten dollars worth of almonds to each tree, and 
have done so for the last six years. 

The iVnderson Bros, at Davisville have an almond 
orchard of 55 acres (fifty-five), and last year the trees, 
three and four years old, netted them nearly five 
thousand dollars. This year the trees are much larger, 
and they estimate between ten and twelve thousand 
dollars worth of almonds. 

San Bicgo, 

E. E. Pierson of Banning, in Escondido Times : 
People who are making the almond pay and produce 
good regular crops plant different varieties together on 



Fruit Farming for Profit in California, 69 

account of the cross fertilization of the bloom. The 
Lanquedoc, one of the early soft-shell nuts, never has 
done well in the State unless other kinds have been 
planted near it, when it has been made to produce a 
large crop. The almond prefers a loose, light, warm 
soil, and will make a failure on poorly drained, heavy 
land, but will make a good growth of wood. I have a 
young orchard here of almonds, only two years old, that 
will have more than enough fruit to pay for all care 
and cultivation this year." ' 

Apricots. 

Apricot Culture, 

This special industry is peculiarly adapted to Cali- 
fornia. No other country produces this fruit in such 
perfection as it is produced in this favoured sunset 
land. The tree is a strong and vigorous grower. It 
fruits early, and when properly managed yields abun- 
dant and regular crops of the very best flavour and 
quality. For the market, when fully ripe, in its green 
condition, it is an attractive, luscious, and desirable 
fruit. As a dried or evaporated fruit it is in great 
demand, and with no fear of over-production when 
sold at a reasonable price. When canned it maintains 
its best qualities in a remarkable degree, and will 
always be a desirable article in canned goods. We 
have the world for a market, and the larger the quan- 
tity properly prepared for market the greater will be 
the consumption, at a remunerative price to the pro- 
ducer. Eemunerative prices do not refer to the prices 
obtained during the season of 1890. Many orchardists 



70 Fruit Farming for Profit in California, 



who were fortunate enoiio-li to own fuU-bearino- orchards 
during the season referred to secured prices so ample 
as to result in snug fortunes for one season's product. 
One cent per pound on the tree is a fair and remunera- 
tive price to the grower. At this figure they should 
reach the consumer at a price that would extend the 
consumption to a wonderful extent. Apricot culture 
can be consistently recommended to the new-comer who 
desires to plant for profit. 

The question of sufficient help to properly and indue 
season gather and prepare the crop for market is per- 
plexing, and quite difficult of solution. The tendency 
now is, and very properly so. to plant small orchards, 
and is a factor in solving the problem of help. Gene- 
rally speaking, a family can care for sufficient orchard 
in all its stages to make a good living and save some- 
thing for future emergencies. The time is near when 
school vacations will be so arranged as to admit of the 
employment of the children of the State during the 
fruitino' season of this and other desirable fruits. 
Children six years old and upwards can be profitably 
employed in the gathering, pitting, and the various 
branches of the harvesting of the crops. This State is 
essentially a fruit-producing country, and we must 
adapt ourselves to the situation in a practical manner 
without delay. During the AYorkVs Fair California's 
exhibit will bring our fruits and their superior excel- 
lence prominently before vast numbers of people, and 
the result no doubt will be the increase, in a short 
time, of our orchards to an unprecedented extent. AYe 
will come to be known as the fruit garden of the world, 
and California will eventually be one grand fruit orchard. 



Fruit Farming for Profit in California, 71 

We will become noted for tlie size, flavour, and general 
superior excellence of our fruits, and tlie apricot in 
p articular. — ra I Ca lifo r nia . 

Thos. a. Garey. 
Before Pomological Society of 
Southern California. 

George W. Ford, of Santa Ana, has been buying 
dried apricots for Porter Bros. & Co., of San Francisco. 
He has so far purchased for this firm about $35,000 
worth of this product in Orange county, the prices paid 
ranging from 10^ to 12^ cents per pound. Mr. Ford is 
one of the best posted men in the fruit business in this 
part of the State, and his estimate of the value of the 
crop is apt to be nearly correct. He says that the value 
of the apricot crop in Orange county will be about 
$300,000 this season, which is within itself a snug little 
sum to be put in circulation there. — Rural California. 

Eeturns from the apricot growers, who dried their 
own fruit this season, have begun to come in, says 
The Californian. The bulk of the dried fruit has 
been sold here during the past week at 12 and 12^ 
cents a pound. The Abelle orchard of 300 trees on 
three and one half acres of land yielded a crop of 22 
tons that has sold for $905*62. The net profit from the 
sale was $812.50 or $249 an acre. The trees on the 
place are eight years old. Two years ago the same 
orchard yielded a crop that sold for $646 or $170 an 
acre. Mrs. Mary St. John tells us that she sold her 
dried apricots from 187 six-year-old trees (about an 
acre and a half; for 12 cents a pound, and received 
$259.20. She did her own fruit drying, except for 



72 Fruit Farming for Profit in California, 

four boys and girls she hired, and her net returns from 
her little orchard are $243. — Rural California, 

M. B. Fassett, of the North Ontario Fruit Company, 
vouches for the statement that one Southern California 
fruit rancher sold his crop of Eoyal apricots this year 
from three acres, for between $1000 and $1100. That 
is nearly $400 per acre for apricots, and if anybody 
has a better showing we should like to hear from 
him. The price received was only a cent a pound, so 
that there must have been about 20 tons of fruit to the 
acre. — Rural Galifornia, 

The Ventura Free Press says : A. E. Newby of Ven- 
tura will make a small fortune this season out of 
apricots. It is said that he bought 2000 tons, for 
which he paid $15 per ton, or say $30,000. He will 
make 330 tons of dried fruit, worth $240 a ton. After 
making expenses he will, doubtless, clean up $30,000 to 
$40,000 out of the venture. 

Money in Fruit Growing. 

The Johnston apricot orchard on Crowe Avenue in 
this place yielded from $190 to $210 an acre this 
season. 

The Wilson apricot orchard of four acres near Lords- 
burg in this valley, had a crop of thirty nine tons that 
sold for $22 a ton at the depot. The cash returns from 
the fruit were $837, or $209 an acre. 

J. J. White, of this place got twenty two tons of 
apricots from his 200 trees on two acres, and sold to 
Sherman, Marr & Higgins for $20 a ton. A cheque for 
the crop from two acres for $440 would make our 
Eastern farmers' eyes stand wide open with surprise. 



Fntit Farming for Profit in California, 73 



The Svenson apricot trees (100 of them) on the 
Kingsley tract bore the lightest crop of fruit ever known 
for them. Yet when the yield was dried it amounted to 
1050 pounds. It sold for twelve and one half cents a 
pound, and a cheqne for 8131.25 was given for the 
acre's yield. 

E. B. McDill reports having taken about twenty- 
three tons of Moorpark apricots from two acres (200 
trees, seven years old), this season. He dried his own 
fruit, and got 7643 pounds of dried fruit. He sold for 
twelve cents a pound, and after paying for labour in dry- 
ing and for hauling his fruit, his clear profit from the 
crop was S805.16. 

If one is properly prepared for it, it pays better to 
dry one's own fruit than to sell it green for others to 
dry. If I can get 2 cents a pound for my apricots 
delivered within two miles of my place, I will sell them 
green. Otherwise I will dry them. — D. Edson Smith, 
Fiural California . 

The report that 860 per ton is being obtained in cer- 
tain sections for apricots this season should remind 
orchardists that if apricot and peach growing are stuck 
to, the average profits will thoroughly justify the 
investment necessary. Even the orange and raisin here 
have their unfavourable seasons, and yet this has no 
tendency to discourage intelligent growers. The former 
disposition to drop a given line of horticulture every 
time another department has an unusually profitable 
season is now likely to influence people less than 
formerlv. The man who sticks," wins in the lono; run. 
— Fiver side Fress. 

We hear of a number of apricot orchards that have 



74 Fi'uit Farming for Pi'ofit in California. 

yielded fruit from §160 to §170 an acre this season, 
over and above all expenses. We respectfully ask some 
of our super-sceptical farmer friends in the East, who 
smile at the idea of paying $300 or $400 an acre for a 
bearing apricot orchard, what they honestly believe such 
property is worth, reckoning the investment to bring 15 
per cent, interest per year? — Progress. 

Two crop statements have just been filed at the 
Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce. One was from E. 
Bandle of Burbank, who had planted three acres of 
sandy loam with White Burbank potatoes. From this 
piece of land he harvested 900 sacks of potatoes, which 
he sold for $900. The cost of production $300, leaving 
a net profit of $600, or $200 to the acre. No irrigation 
was found necessary. Forty of these potatoes made 
one bushel. The second statement was from S. E. 
Thorp, of Ventura, who harvested forty acres of ten- 
year-old apricot trees. The total yield was 720,000 
pounds, and he sold from this quantity sixty tons of 
dried fruit for $15,000. The land was of the same 
quality as the above. 

Mr. Grruenenwald, who lives north of town, sold 
$1300 worth of apricots from two and three quarter 
acres. Dr. G-reenleaf raised $1600 worth on a little 
less than four acres, and there are several other in- 
stances of remarkable yields. — Santa Ana Blade. 

A. L. Taylor reports that he has been offered 11 cents 
per pound for his dried apricots, but he is holding out 
for 12 cents. Another proof of the fact that it pays and 
pays big to dry your own fruit. — Santa Ana Blade. 

Mrs. A. H. Stutsman, who resides in the neighbour- 
hood of Tustin, and who owns a small fruit farm of 



Fruit Farming for Profit in California. 75 

mixed varieties, sold from 8i apricot trees $572.83 
worth of dried fruit the past season. This is at the 
rate of §936.49 per acre. — Santa Ana Blade. 

Peaes and Otheb Feuit. 

D. W. Lewis, whose place is near Malaga, is an 
authority in all that pertains to fruit-growing. He 
believes the most profit^ible variety to be Bartlett 
pears. 

This season I harvested from thirty-five acres of 
six-year-old Bartlett pears, some twenty car loads, 
which I shipped East. I also shipped 22,000 pounds of 
dried pears, receiving fifteen cents a pound for them, 
which brought me in about §5500." 

F. E, Storie says: — ^'My gross receipts from four 
acres of peaches amounted to §1031. Among pears I 
consider Bartletts the best variety ; from an acre and a 
half of young trees I took off $125 worth of fruit. 
Nectarines are a very good crop, bearing and paying 
well. I have netted 8100 an acre on this fruit. Apri- 
cots pay from §125 to §150. French prunes do very 
well here ; and from four and a half acres of this fruit 
I received §1000. With a judicious selection of fruit 
trees there is much money in fruit." 

James Conn, living on Elm Avenue in Fresno Colony, 
has a forty-acre tract in fruit, which yielded him §6600 
this season. He says : I raise peaches, apricots, 
pears^ and nectarines, having about twelve acres in 
orchard. My apricots this year netted me §250 an acre. 
In ordinary years I get from §150 to §200 fr om them. 
Peaches pay me about the same. The demand for 



76 Fruit Farming for Profit i?i California, 

nectarines has been very active ; and I got §300 an 
acre for them this season. Last year I received §200. 
I consider them a very profitable crop. A few years 
ago yon would hardly bny them. I have some yonng 
Bartletts which paid me SI 00 net per acre. Prom 
twelve acres of orchard I sold §4000 worth of fruit this 
season. 

Walnuts. 

The first matter to be considered is soil. I think a 
deep alluvial deposit, with little or no alkali, is best 
adapted. It requires good drainage ; any sub-soil 
which is impervious to water being objectionable. 
Water standing around the tree roots is hurtful, causing 
sour sap and in time killing the tree ; it is especially 
so if impregnated with alkali or mineral salts. I con- 
sider a depth of less than 10 feet to water objection- 
able, from 12 to 14 is better. Our finest nuts are 
grown near the coast. 

In planting, trees should be put at least 50 feet apart, 
and I think 55 or even 60 is better. I have seen trees 
planted 40 feet apart, and after they had attained the 
age of about 20 years the branches overlapped to such 
an extent as to injure the fruitfulness of the tree, and 
it became necessary to remove some of them. I think 
soft shells might be planted 30 by 50 feet, and when 
they are abouf 16 years of age remove each alternate 
one, thus leaving the trees 50 by 60 feet apart. The 
soft shell commences to bear at five years, and from that 
time until 16 years of age a tree ought to produce a 
total of 1000 pounds of nuts, or the trees could be taken 
out at 12 years and transplanted to good advantage. 



Fniit Fanning for Profit in California, 



77 



As I have said the soft shells commence bearing at five 
years, at 10 years they are in full bearing, that is, the 
tree is fruited to its utmost capacity ; of course the tree 
keeps on growing for a number of years, and the larger 
the tree the more walnuts it will produce. I consider 
this by far the best variety, as the tree is thrifty, a 
good grower and bearer, fruit superior and commands a 
better price in market than the hard shell. The leaves 
also drop later— that makes gathering the crop more 
convenient, as the nuts are allowed to fall and are then 
picked from the ground. 

This year we sold soft shells at 8i cents, hard shells 
7i cents, first grade. Paper shells sold for 8^ cents. 

Orange County, 

Anaheim Gazttle : The walnut industry bids fair in 
the coming time to be one of large magnitude in this 
section, where climatic conditions combine with soil 
characteristics to favour the best results in growing 
and marketing this profitable crop. Where we now 
ship out 125 or 130 tons annually, our exports are 
destined in a few years to be by the trainload. In the 
raising and marketing of this crop, we are second only 
to the Eivera section, admittedly the most extensive 
walnut-producing centre in the country. At the present 
time it is doubtful if the trees in bearing here will cover 
more than 150 acres, a great many aligning the streets 
and roads ; yet the acreage set out to young trees now 
rapidly approaching the bearing stage goes extensively 
into the thousands. Of the orchards at present return- 
ing handsome revenues, those of Mr. Stone at Fullerton, 
and Mr. G-ilman at Placentia, may be cited in evidence. 



78 Fmit Fanning for Profit in California. 

The former gentleman has an orchard of 33 acres of 
magnificent young trees in bearing, which this year will 
produce 12 tons, valued at §1700. Mr. Gilman's crop 
amounts to 30 tons, and was sold a couple of weeks ago 
for $4200. The rest of the crop hereabouts comes from 
small orchards and from trees aligning the roadway, and 
will go probably to 125 or 130 tons all told. At 7 cents 
per pound, the crop will thus bring into this section 
the snug sum of $18,200. The output, moreover, is 
being increased constantly by the addition of young 
trees coming into bearing, and next year will un- 
doubtedly be much larger than this season. New 
orchards are being set out on an extensive scale, the 
total new area amounting to 2000 or 3000 acres. The 
big walnut grove below town, containing 600 acres, the 
largest walnut orchard, by the way, in the world, is 
coming on nicely, and will in a few years be good for 
several hundred tons of nuts. 

Mrs. Thurston, the oldest orchardist in Aliso Valley, 
ships about five tons of walnuts per annum from one 
acre of nuts, and grown without irrigation, 

Mr. Mendelson, of Capistrano, got $1700 off six acres 
soft shell walnuts, 9 or 10 years old, this year, 1892, 

" J. C. Sheppard, of FuUerton, has a walnut tree 
three years old from the seed, the trunk of which is now 
twenty-three inches in circumference. We would be 
pleased to hear from any one who can beat it." — 
Anaheim Gazette, That is easily done ! John Cubben 
who owns a splendid Eanche about 1^ miles south-east 
of the Santa Ana post-office, has a walnut tree three 
years old that measures 28 inches full in circumference, 
and has never been irrigated. 



Fniit Farming for Profit in California, 79 



^YHY CALIFOEXIA LEADS THE WOELD. 

The follo^Ying is an article on practical fruit-growing 
for the small farmer contributed to the S, F. Examiner 
by Professor B. M. Lelong, Chief Horticultural Officer 
of the State. 

Fruit-groivi/ig for Profit. 
Points for the Beginner — Yield and Profits hy the Acre. 

Bl/ Prof B. M. Belong, 

The great industry of California to-day, and one that 
in a few years, if it continues its present rate of growth, 
will overshadow all others, is fruit-growing. While 
fruit has been grown in the State for over a century 
past, having been introduced by the ^lission fathers as 
early as 1769, in the southern part of the State, and 
by the Eussian traders, early in the present century, in 
the northern portion, it is only during the past twenty 
years that we have made any rapid progress in this 
direction : but in that time California has forced her 
way ahead of all other States in the Union until she is 
to-day the orchard of the United States. 

With a continually widening market for our orchard 
products, with stories of fabulous returns from invest- 
ments in fruit farms, it is natural that much attention 
should be dii^ected to this branch of industry, and that 
people of small means desirous of making a home and 



8o Fruit Farming for Profit in California. 

an income slionld seek for information in regard to it. 
For this class and for the benefit of the Eastern people 
desiring to locate in California it is purposed to present 
a series of papers on the fruit industry of California 
that may be a guide to them. 

Many of the pioneers who sought California in early 
days, allured by the prospects of sudden wealth in her 
mines, brought with them seeds, cuttings, cions or roots 
from their Eastern homes, and in the mining towns we 
find the oldest American orchards of the State. These 
were composed of the hardy fruits of the Eastern States, 
and many of them flourished in their new home. But 
the conditions of soil, climate and physical features of 
California are in so many ways contrary to those of the 
East that fruit culture in early days was largely ex- 
perimental, and many of the early orchardists paid 
dearly for their experience. The orchardist of to-day 
profits by their experience. He knows the rocks upon 
which they struck and can avoid them, and there is no 
reason why, with the experience of the past to guide 
him, if possessed of ordinary business judgment, the 
beginner in orchard work should not succeed. He 
must not, however, expect to clear from $300 to $1000 
from his orchard in three or five years, or at all, for 
while the stories of large profits are true of favoured 
spots, it is not generally true of our fruit orchards, and 
the man who would make a success must make up his 
mind to receive a fair income for his outlay of money 
and labour. This he may depend upon, and it is more 
certain in fruit growing than in any other pursuit, but 
he has got to carry into it the business tact and judg- 
ment that win success in other lines. 



Fruit Fanning for Profit in California. 8 1 



Tlie beginner will naturally ask, " Wliat assurance 
have I that my investment will be permanent as well 
as proritable ? What are the causes that make Cali- 
fornia superior to other States of the Union as a fruit- 
producer ? Will not other portions of the Union enter 
into competition with us and overstock the market and 
thus make my investment unprofitable and my labour 
a failure ? " 

These doubts will quickly disappear with a know- 
ledge of our advantages." These are the climate, 
geographical position and physical peculiarities. 
While descriptions of California's climate have become 
hackneyed, it is nevertheless the one great cause of our 
superiority as a fruit section, and our climate depends 
upon our geographical position. Lying in the direct 
course of the great Japanese current, which comes laden 
with the warmth of the tropics and flows along the 
greater length of our coast, California is never subject 
to those extremes of temperature so fatal to the more 
tender fruits in the Eastern States. 

The uniform dry weather in the picking season gives 
superior opportunities for picking and drying, enabling 
our fruit growers to cure their fruit in the open air at 
a minimum of cost. These are but a few of the reasons 
for our superiority as a fruit section. They are advan- 
tages possessed by no other State, and advantages 
which we can never lose. Our geographical position, 
too, gives us the world for a market, and while with 
the continually increasing population of the East we 
have a steadily increasing home market, we also ship 
large quantities of our fruit to Australia, China and 
Japan. With the United States and the rest of the 



82 Fruit Farming for Profit in California. 

world for a market there is no danger of over- produc- 
tion. 

The most profitable varieties to plant depends 
largely upon location, quality of soil, nature of climate 
and the demand. The following table gives the average 
yield of green fruit, and the figures are rather under 
than over, of orchards in full bearing, together with 
prices paid in 1891, when they were exceptionally low, 
and for the present year when they are good. A careful 
estimate made by one of our leading orchardists is to 
the efi"ect that in a full-bearing orchard, properly cared 
for, the cost of drying fruit is 2^ cents per pound. 
This covers all expenses, and all amounts received for 
the finished product over this sum are clear profit. 
With these figures as a basis, the prospective grower 
can decide for himself what are the most profitable 
varieties for him : 





Acre. 


Prices per Ton— 1891. 


Prices per Ton- 1892. 


Vaeietiis. 


u 

03 












Tons \ 


Green. 


Dried. 


Green. 


Dried. 


Apples 
Apricots . 
Prunes . 
Pears 

Figs (white) . 
Peaches . 
Walnuts . 
Almonds . 


4 
5 
6 

5 
8 
5 

\\ 
H 


$20@40 
25@30 
30 (§40 
30 

60 (§80 
40(§50 


$120 
140(§160 
100 (§150 
IOC (§120 
200(§240 
iC0(§150 
160@i80 
160(§260 


|30@50 
40(§60 
50(§60 
40(a;50 
60(^80 
35(§40 


$140@160 
^4^ (§300 
180@200 
140(§160 
260^300 
200 (§300 
160@180 
160 (§260 



Orange^, budde^^, 108 boxes at $2 $216 

OraDges, seeding, 216 boxes at $2 . . . . . 432 
LemoES, budded, 540 boxes at |3 1620 



Fridt Farming for Profit in California, 83 



In drying it requires 7 pounds of green apples to 
make 1 pound of dried ; apricots, 4 to 1 ; prunes 2| to 
1 ; pears 3 to 1 ; figs, 3 to 1 ; peaches, picked, 7 to 1 ; 
unpicked, 4 to 1. 

The figures here given are very conservative ; in 
many cases they are very largely exceeded. As to the 
kind of fruit that will return the greatest profit, it is 
safe to say that all kinds are profitable where proper 
judgment is exercised in their selection and care in 
their cultivation. 



A Small Eanche. 

Ever since his residence in Southern California, the 
editor has frequently received letters from old friends 
and strangers East, inquiring about Southern California 
and what one can do to make a living. Our usual 
answer in brief is, out of the soil/' but we turn such 
correspondence over to those that know more about it 
than we do. Recently, however, two men who happen 
to be wardens of Christ Church Parish have given us 
figures and shown us specimens which, for the benefit 
of Eastern readers, we print here. Major Eobert H. 
Nolton, the senior ivardeii, formerly a railroad man of 
Chicago, nine years ago purchased the Mountain View 
Orchard " at Vernondale, just on the southern boundary 
of the city, consisting of nineteen acres. It had been 
planted in fruit six or seven years before. He manages 
everything with railroad precision and neatness, and 
the following is the report from December, 1888, to 
December 1889 : 

f2 



84 Fruit Fanning for Profit in Califor7tia, 



Income. 

2,500 boxes oranges .S2,5C0 '""O 

1,500 boxes lemons . 2,000 00 

37,000 ponnds peaches 740 00 

2,000 ponnds pears . 40 00 

3,500 pounds apples . 70 CO 

1,500 pounds bei ries . 120 00 
1,000 pounds English 

walnuts . 80 00 
500 pounds crab 

apples . . 10 00 
400 pounds necta- 
rines . . 8 00 



Gross .§5,913 00 



Expenses. 

Two men employed . $711 CO 

Hay and grain for three 

horses . . . 267 50 

Taxes . . . . 118 67 

Family expenses, team 
supplies, and do- 
mestic . . . 1,710 00 

Net income over all 

expenses . . . 3,072 83 

§5,913 CO 



The family averages six. In this report no account 
is made of eggs, chickens and two cows, the retnrns 
being consumed. An alfalfa patch on the place main- 
tains two COWS. — Eev. Dr. Haskins, Editor Southern 
Calif ornian Churchman, Los Angeles. 

The Oltye. 

An olive orchard is a gold mine on the face of the earth." — 
Italian Froverh. 

Profits of Olive Culture'. — Mr. Kimball, the olive oil 
manufacturer, has stated that olive trees three years 
old will pay expenses ; that trees four and five years 
old will pay a handsome return ; that he bought olives 
at 85 cents per gallon as they were gathered from trees 
a few months over four years old, some of the trees 
yielding thirty gallons of oil ; that he paid one of his 
neighbours over 8200 per acre for his olives, the trees 
having been planted three years ago last March ; that 
he has picked eleven gallons from a tree four years and 
six months old from the cutting ; that he has taken 
twenty-three gallons from a tree less than six years 



Fruit Fanning for Profit in California. 85 



old, and that lie lias liad one hundred and ninety-two 
gallons picked from a single tree at the old San Diego 
Mission. 

Mr. EUwood Coo23er, of Santa Barbara, tested one 
of his orchards seven years old from the cutting which 
yielded ten bottles of oil to the tree, large and small ; 
price of oil, 82 per bottle. 

The following is taken from Mr. Cooper's book on 
the olive : — Mr. Davis, who had charge of the San 
Diego Mission orchard, assnred me that he had 
gathered from the same tree two years in succession 
one hundred and fifty gallons of berries. At four years 
from the cutting I have gathered from some of the trees 
over two gallons of berries per tree, and at six years 
over thirty gallons of berries per tree from a few of the 
best trees. The oldest orchard being eight years old, I 
do not think I over-estimate it at over 40 gallons per 
tree for the best and fullest trees. An orchard bearino; 
uniformly the quantity as above would give the follow- 
ing result : — One hundred trees to the acre at 40 gallons 
each, 4000 gallons. One-fourth the quantity yearly 
would be a very profitable crop." 

Mr. B. B. Briggs, of La Cresenta, Canada, Los Angeles 
County, reports having a tree, eleven years old, that 
yielded 50 gallons last year. Mr. Cooper plants 20 feet 
apart, or 108 trees to the acre; at that rate an acre 
would yield 5400 gallons of pickled olives, worth at 
wholesale, in Los Angeles, 75 cents to Sl'OO per gallon. 
It requires about eight gallons of olives to make one 
gallon of oil. 

Age of Trees before coming info Bearing. — The late 
Governor Waterman stated to me that cuttings bore in 



86 Fruit Fanning for Profit in California, 



three years on liis place a few miles north, of San Ber- 
nardino, and that the locality was the home of the olive. 

Several hundred one-year-old Nevadillo and Manza- 
nillo trees were planted in this vicinity three years ago, 
on rather dry, sandy land ; they have had no irrigation, 
but have made a fine growth, and are in bearing this 
year. The late Professor Klee had Nevadillo four years 
old in bearing last year in the Santa Cruz mountains. 

The San Juan Company of Capistrano have three- 
year-old trees bearing. 

No e':cj:>en8ive Macninery nor exjjerienced Workmen 
required to mc/he Oil and PicMes. 

A neighbour of mine who was wholly inexperienced 
in the business made the crop of 300 trees into oil and 
pickles ; the oil took the first premium at the Citrus 
Fair in Los Angeles ; the pickles sold for 75 cents to 
§1*25 per gallon wholesale in Los Angeles; the crop 
netted over S2000. The machinery used cost less than 
§100. 

• Numerous instances might be cited where the olive 
crop has been converted into oil and pickles by cheap 
and simple means by persons without previous ex- 
perience. 

Though oil and pickles may be made on the place 
where the fruit is grown by the average man at small 
cost for machinery, when olives are grown in sufficient 
quantities, persons will erect manufacturing works and 
buy the crops as other fruit is bought by the canning 
companies. (Cooper.) 

The late Prof. AY. G. Klee, of the Experiment G-rounds 



Fi'liit Farming for Profit hi California, 8/ 

of the State University, at Berkeley, California, wrote : — 
" The olive will grow in a soil too dry even for a grape- 
vine, and too rocky for any other fruit tree ; the hills 
and mountain slopes not fit for the pasture of even a 
goat can be made to produce olives ; precisely such will 
produce the fruit much earlier than the rich valleys. 
It has often been said that the olive is the poor man's 
tree. That oil and pickles of the finest quality can be 
produced in this State cannot be questioned, as Ellwood 
Cooper, of Santa Barbara, has taken the prize at the 
Paris World's Fair." 

At a meeting of the State Board of Horticulture, 
Mr. Ellwood Cooper said : — I have growing on my 
place olive trees in black adobe, in deep bottom land, 
in sandy land made from the wash of the mountains, in 
stony hillsides, in adobe hillsides, and in table land 
where the subsoil is probably twenty feet deep, dark 
clav, and so far as I have known there is no difference 
in the bearing of these trees, or in the oil made. I 
plant twenty feet apart, and do not irrigate. As to 
profit, I am planting olives and no other fruit tree." 

The pickled olives brought to this country from 
Europe are put up green, and are fit to be used only 
as a condiment, while the more mature California pro- 
duct is a nourishing food much preferred to the foreign 
article, and growing in favour from year to year, the 
demand being greater than the supply, which is entirely 
exhausted in a few weeks after being put upon the home 
market. 

The Department of Agriculture at Washington a few 
years ago made chemical tests of sixty-six samples of 
imported olive oil, and not a single sample was found 



88 Fruit Farviing for Profit ill California, 



to be pure ; one sample contained only fonr per cent, 
olive oil. 

There is no donbt tliat tlie olive tree will thrive and 
pay large profits on a great variety of onr cheap lands 
near the coast and inland, requiring bnt little irrigation, 
in many localities none : that the crop may be handled 
at a time when other fruits do not require attention, 
and by the average man. even without previous ex- 
perience, with cheap and simple apparatus ; that the 
home-grown pickles are better than the imported, aiid 
the home-made oil superior to the foreign, and if kept 
up to its present standard of puritv and excellence 
will have not only our own country but the world for a 
market. 

AYith these facts in view it is not strange that saga- 
cious and far-seeing men are beginning to engage in 
this profitable industry. 

Tlie Olive in Southern California. 

In establishing ]\Iissions in California, the Fathers 
also planted the olive — a variety knovm in Spain as 
the Cornicabra but here called the Mission) was set 
out. Considering the long years of neglect, these old 
groves, especially those at San Diego and San Fer- 
nando, are in a remarkable state of usefulness. Several 
years ago one of the trees at tlte San Ditgo 21is:io'Ji 
y 'elded 150 qa.llons of o/icos ; in Ftbruary, 1888, J. S. 
Harhison i^Janttd cuttinrjs obtained from them, and in 
1890 one of the trees from tliose cuttings produced a 
gallon of olices. The oil trees at San Fernando were 



Fruit Farming for Profit in California, 89 



cut clown near tlie ground several years ago, and tlie 
new trees from the stumps are bearing again. 

Olive-trees do not seem to thrive inland as well as 
near the coast. While the olive will thrive better 
under neglect than any other fruit tree^ it responds 
generously to good treatment. There are a number of 
olive groves in bearing near San Diego the product of 
which has been made into pickles, selling in the stores 
at §1.20 per gallon. Excellent pickled olives are 
made with this recipe : For six gallons of olives dis- 
solve one pound of Gr. T. Lewis' concentrated lye in 
six gallons of water, add four ^^ounds of salt, soak the 
berries in this mixture two days, then draw oif and 
replace it with same kind for two days longer, drawing 
the mixture off several times daily and pouring it over 
the olives. Kow draw of the mixture again and im- 
merse the olives in water from five to eight days, then 
draw off the water and put on a brine of three pounds 
of salt to six gallons of water for two days, or until the 
last trace of lye is gone. Finally, cover them with 
new brine of three pounds of salt to four and a half 
gallons of water. The ripe olives put up in this manner 
are far superior to those imported, which are prepared 
from the green fruit. The supply of the home product 
as yet is very limited. 

A little olive oil has been made here, and may be 
obtained at the stores at 75 cents per bottle of half-pint. 
Though made by inexperienced persons and by simple 
means, it is of excellent quality, one sample taking 
first premium at the Citrus Fair. The apparatus used 
for making it cost less than 8100. Owing to the purity 
of California oil, it promises to displace all other 



90 Fruit Farming for Profit in California, 

brands when produced in sufficient quantity to supply 
the demand. — Rural California, 

On Mr. Whiting's Eanche there are a number of 
olive trees planted in 1808, and these never fail to 
bear an annual crop. 

Game. 

By Count Jaro von Schmidt 

One of the many attractions which Orange County 
offers to new- comers is certainly the remarkable abun- 
dance of all kinds of game, large and small. In the 
mountain districts even bear are occasionally met with. 
There we find the mountain lion, wild cat, lynx, fox, 
mink, martin, racoon, coyote, etc. Deer are quite 
numerous in secluded valleys. The smaller game is 
represented by hares, rabbits, cranes, herons, swans, 
geese, ducks, snipes, avosets, rails, curlews, ibis, plovers, 
gallinules, quails, doves, larks, etc. 

In the fall it is no uncommon sight to see a flock of 
wild swan (Cygnus Americanus), a magniHcent bird 
that is very seldom met with east of the Eocky Moun- 
tains. Upon the approach of winter they leave their 
Northern breeding places and wing their way toward 
the Sunny South. 

Five different species of geese make Orange County 
their winter home. Of these the large and small white 
goose is the most common, covering sometimes acres of 
land as thick as they can alight. Last season one man 
killed twenty geese with two barrels ; a boy from Ana- 
heim shot twenty-seven, and another from Tustin broke 
the record by killing twenty-nine with one discharge 



Fruit Farming for Profit in California, 91 



of his gun. The black goose, or Canada honker (anas 
Canadensis), is also plentiful, and is considered the 
best for the table. The yellow-legged, or checker- 
breasted goose, and the Brant goose. 

The sandhill crane was very plentiful in former years, 
and did considerable damage in the barley fields : bnt 
since cultivation in Orange County has made such 
wonderful changes that most of the plains have been 
transformed into orange groves, orchards, and vineyards, 
the cranes have changed their winter quarters to the 
adjoining counties, which are in a less advanced state 
of cultivation. 

Almost all known varieties of wild fowl abound in 
everv lake, creek, or slouoh. The delicious canvas-back 
(anas valisneria}, the beautiful mallard (anas boschas), 
often in flocks of several hundreds, the pintail (anas 
acuta), the widgeon (anas Americana}, the gadwall 
(anas stapera), the dusky duck (anas obscura}, blue- 
winged teal (anas discors), the green-winged teal (anas 
crecca), the surf duck (anas perspicillata"*, the red- 
headed duck (anas ferina\. in flavour equal to the canvas- 
back, the buftel-headed duck or butterball (anas albeola), 
the shoveller (anas clypeata), etc., etc. ^lany of these 
varieties breed here in great numbers, and proper st^ps 
have been taken to protect them bv law during the 
breeding season, as the present game law gives them no 
protection whatever. I have bagged very often over 
one hundred ducks in one day — leaving for the shooting 
grounds after breakfast and returning before dark. 

Plovers and snipe are very plentiful, the former 
arriving in Orange County as early as September. 
Thev are excellent eatina*, and very tame birds, that 



92 Fruit Fanning for Profit in California, 



can be slaugliterecl easily, even by inexperienced marks- 
men. 

The Englisli snipe (scolopal gallinags, or scopolax 
deliciata), the delight of the gourmand, is found in 
great numbers all over the artesian belt district of the 
county. Last season I bagged, near Westminster, 
seventy-one English snipe in one day. 

The curlew, the rabbit, and hare afford excellent sport 
the whole year round, and therefore give some amuse- 
ment to the sportsman, even during the summer months, 
or the close season.'^ 

The quail (the mountain and valley quail). The 
former, as their name indicates, frequent the mountain- 
ous part of the county, while the valley quail is found 
everywhere, and in large coveys, often as many as five 
and six hundred, are very pretty birds, and exceedingly 
gamey. 

The doves are found everywhere, in small and large 
flocks. They are very proliHc breeders, nesting three 
or four times a year, and are, as an article of food, 
almost preferable to the quail. 

Very encouraging for the future sportsman is the 
forming of hunting clubs in the county, whose object 
is, besides enforcing the game laws and making sugges- 
tions to the Legislature about protecting game by 
changing or shortening the shooting season, to introduce 
new varieties of valuable game birds. 

The lately formed San Joaquin Shooting Club will 
import, this coming spring, the Japanese pheasant 
(Phaseanus Calchicus). 

I think it further worth mentioning that coursing- 
after hares with greyhounds is very interesting and 



Fncit Farming for Profit in California, 93 



exciting pastime in this county. Tlie Alamitos Eanclie 
is the best adapted for conrsing on account of its vast 
expanse of level country and the great number of hares 
found there. 

Our county offers, finally, a great inducement to the 
fisherman, as the mountain streams are literally filled 
with speckled trout, and as the south-west j)art of the 
county faces the Southern Pacit'C Ocean, it gives there- 
fore good and unlimited sport for trolling and still- 
water fishing. 

We may find places in the northern part of the State 
or in Oregon, AVashington, or British "Columbia, where 
there may be better shooting for bear, elk, or deer ; we 
may find better fishing on Lake Superior and its 
tributaries ; we may find, perhaps, better variety of 
game in Central Africa, but we will have to face either 
snow, rainstorms, and blizzards, or our lives will be 
endangered by the savage man and beast, and so we 
come at last to the conclusion, that there is no better 
place for the lover of sport than Orange County in 
California, where he can live in eternal sunshine and 
enjoy the pleasures of sport as well as the comforts of 
civilization and society. There is no better place than 
Orange County, the hunter's paradise. 



94 



Fruit Farming for Profit in California. 



MISCELLANEOUS INFORMATION. 

SwoEN Statement of Paige and Morton. 

To show that the tables published in this pamphlet are very con- 
servative, we hereby append the sworn statement of Paige 
and Morton, who owned an assorted orchard of 500 acres 
and a raisin vineyard of 800 acres. 



KlIfDS OF FeUITS. 


Age of 
Trees, 
1890. 


Cost of 
Cultivat- 
ing and 
Handling. 


Gross 
Receipts 
per Acre. 


Net Profit 
per Acre. 


Apricots 


5 


% 
132 


$ 
313 


$ 
211 


Nectarines .... 


5 


132 


400 


268 


Peaches 


5 


150 


500 


350 


Yellow Egg Plnms 


5 


100 


500 


400 


French Prnnes 


5 


120 


720 


600 


Pears 


6 


65 


502 


427 


Raisins 


5 


65 


305 


240 



Solicitors Calif. Fruit Co., Head-oflSce, San Francisco. 



Money in Fruit. — James McPhersonof Garden Eanclie 
has three acres of Bartlett pear trees now eight years 
old. They were cut down when two years old by 
grass-hoppers, so bear no more than trees six or seven 
years old, yet last season he picked 15 tons from the 
tract, and this season 11 tons from the same. The 
fruit averaged him two cents a pound delivered here for 
shipment to the Marysville cannery. This would re- 
turn him this season $440 and last year $600, or $1040 



Fruit Farming for Profit in California, 95 



for the two years from three acres of land. This would 
amount to 8340 an acre for the two seasons, or 8170 an 
acre for each season. Last year his neighbour, Jas. 
Stevenson, obtained §65 from an acre and a quarter 
planted to pear trees, but this year he realized, by ship- 
ping to the cannery, $218, or abont §175 an acre. The 
Bartlett and all other varieties of pears do well in the 
foothills, and, as will be seen above, they are profitable 
crops to produce. — Rural Press, September 24th, 1892. 



The United States are sending out to Europe annually 
millions of dollars for lemons. It is doubtful if there is 
enough good lemon land in Southern California on which 
to raise enough lemons to supply the present and the ever 
increasing demand for that popular fruit. It is safe to 
predict, however, that within the next quarter of a 
century this south-western corner of Uncle Sam's 
dominion will receive many of the millions of money 
that are now being sent to Europe for lemons. — Rural 
California, 



KoTEs ON Roses. 
\Jjrown Vista,'] 

Just now when the public attention is being directed 
to roses, the following from the pen of Flora M. Kim- 
ball, which we find in an exchange, may be of general 
interest : — 

" I would not advise in this climate of uninterrupted 
sunshine the training of roses in tree shape. Lacking 
the shade afforded by low branches the stalk scalds and 
the growth is retarded. This is illustrated by high- 



96 Fruit Fanning for Profit in. California, 



pruned fruit trees. All plants, and especially roses, 
thrive better when supported by trellis, sticks or wall. 
The La Marque is one of the most rapid climbers, does 
not rust or mildew, and is uniformly clean and healthy. 
If a person can care for but one, the La Marque is a flower 
garden in itself. It is said there is one in Orange that 
covers the entire front of a house, about 900 square feet. 
Here is an opportunity to circumvent the traffic in 
water. Two or three roses like La Marque, Marechal 
Niel or Eeeve d'Or will fill a place with beauty, and can 
be maintained with waste water from the kitchen." 



Tons of apples are now being shipped from West- 
minster and surrounding country. Our fruit industry 
is rapidly bringing this section to the front. It is 
becoming more widely known that our soil and climate 
are adapted to the production of the very finest of fruits. 
Also that our land is easily worked and is cheaper than 
anywhere else in Southern California. We predict that 
hundreds of home-seekers from the East will within the 
next few years locate in Orange County. — Santa Ana 
Blade. 



At Anaheim, in Orange County, the farmers, business 
men, capitalists, and land-holders have clubbed together 
to put a beet sugar factory in operation next year. 
The task of securing 3000 shares of stock has been 
finished, and 214 shares more than the requisite amount 
has been subscribed. Eichard Gird, whose sugar 
enterprise at Chino is proving so successful, is to be 
one of the directors ; and E. H. Dyer, of Alvarado, is a 



Fruit Farming for Profit in California, 97 



shareholder. The plant will be of American make, 
from the works at Cleveland, where the Dyers are 
interested. 



El Toro. — From El Toro, stage connection is made 
with Laguna and Arch Beach, on the coast nine miles 
west. Arch Beach is destined to be one of California's 
most noted seaside resorts, though at present compara- 
tively little known. The shore line at this point is 
extremely rugged, something unusual on the California 
coast, and is a pleasing contrast to the long stretches 
of sandy beach to which one is accustomed. The 
action of the waves on the sandstone cliffs has worn 
immense caverns and arches, hence the name Arch 
Beach. The breaking of the surf over the rocks is a 
sight one never tires of. In the caves and among the 
rocks near shore are found great numbers of beautiful 
shells. The polishing of these shells and their manu- 
facture into various articles of use and ornament forms 
a growing industry. The fishing, too, is of the best. 

There is a small hotel here and several cottages 
owned principally by Eiverside and Santa Ana people, 
with whom Arch Beach is a summer home of unequalled 
attractions. 

In the mountain canons, east of El Toro, silver 
mining is carried on, the largest mine being that of the 
Santiago Canon Silver Mining Company, which employs 
about twenty-five men. This company is now putting 
in concentrating machinery. Bear, deer, and mountain 
lions are found in these mountains, and sportsmen are 
well rewarded. — Santa Fe Railroad PamjMet. 

G 



98 Emit Farming for Profit in Californi.i. 



\Y, J. Hill yras in Santa Ana to-day. and informei 
ns tliat lie has liis tliresliino; outfit at vrork near El 
Toro. Thus far this season he has threshed 25.000 
sacks of grain, and he thinks his season's work will 
reach 30,000 sacks,— B/^c/e. 



Fruit Farming for Profit in California. 99 



MARKETING CALIFOENIAN FEUITS. 
By ay. H. Mills. 

A'off. — This article was prepared for State Board of Trade. 

We beg to call your attention to a little article by 
tlie best posted man in California, taken from 
Cah'fornian Magazine, October, 1892. 

Among the many questions of vital interest wliich 
affect tlie horticulturist, the farmer, and the prosperity 
of California at large, none is more important than that 
relating to the marketing and distribution of fruits. 

The orchard and vineyard products of California, to 
reach consumers outside of our State, must travel an 
average distance of about two thousand five hundreil 
miles, and the best method of sending the fruit of Cali- 
fornia in its green form, directly to the consumer, de- 
serves careful consideration. The plan heretofore 
adopted followed the ordinary methods of commerce ; 
that is, the fruits have been shipped to the large com- 
mercial centres for distribution. 

Every commonwealth must have what is known to 
the political economist as a basis industry. Such an 
industry has its permanency in physical or climatic 
advantages. Pennsylvania may be used as an illustrfi- 
tion. Coal and iron constitute the basis of the indus- 

G 2 

L.ofC. 



100 Fruit Fanning for Profit in California, 



trial opulence of Pennsylvania. The products of these 
furnish a foundation of growth and prosperity upon 
which other industries stand as a superstructure. Coal 
and ii'on are found in large quantities in that State. 
They are found contiguous. Theii^ extraction is eco- 
nomic, and their relation to and interdependence upon 
each other furnish the opportunity of founding a great 
industrial empire upon them as a material basis. 

The commercial relation between all parts of the 
world grows constantly more intimate. "With that in- 
timacy the competition between climates and soils, and 
mines, in fact all elements of production, becomes more 
intense. The iron and coal mines of Pennsylvania and 
the resultant products of the labour founded upon these, 
added to the geographical position of Pennsylvania, 
enable that commonwealth to place the products of iron 
and coal in the markets of the United States advan- 
tao:eouslv. with reference to the connoetition oftered bv 
other localities. The Government has extended to the 
iron industry in the United States a vast subsidy in 
the way of protection. Thus the basis industry of the 
commonwealth of Pennsylvania is under the fostering 
care of the Government. The economic facts control- 
ling the product of iron and coal in the United States 
make Pennsylvania practically independent as to the 
effect of domestic competition. A protective tariff re- 
lating to iron and its products emphasizes that industry, 
and relieves its products from foreign comj)etition at 
least in the home market. ^ The superiority of advan- 
tage becomes a guaranty of permanency. The products 
of coal and iron in Pennsylvania confer upon the people 
of that commonwealth a purchasing capacity, and an 



Fi'uit Farming for Profit in California, loi 



accumulation of capital wliicli generates enterprise in 
infinite variety. Incidental to this great leading in- 
dustry, other industries become possible. But the 
industrial fabric, like all other structui^es, has its archi- 
tectural design, its foundation, and its superstructure. 
The extent to which the basis industry of a common- 
wealth is the source of all industrial prosperity is not 
apparent to casual observation, nor even to close 
analysis. An approximation of the extent to which all 
industries are dependent upon some great leading and 
standard industry can be reached by imagining, for 
illustration, that all the iron mills of Pennsvlvania and 
all the mines of that State were suddenlv eliminated 
from the industrial category. It is not difficult to 
imagine the disaster which would ensue. In fact, the 
statement that the whole industrial fabric would fall 
will be readily received. In the building of common- 
wealths we must observe the analogies of all great 
structures, and in building our California the question 
naturally arises : AYhat have we here possessing eco- 
nomic advantage in the intensified competition of pro - 
duction throughout the world, which constitutes at 
present, or will constitute in the future, a basis of our 
industrial system ? As already noted, the existence of 
such industries, or basis industry, with its wealth- 
generating power, will eventuate in enterprises as broad 
as the field of human activity. Mining for precious 
metals was the original and paramount industry of the 
State. It attracted the pioneer population, but coun- 
tries prolific of precious metals are proverbially poor. 
The production of a million or ten millions of gold and 
silver, as a result of mining, proclaims the impoverish- 



102 Fruit Fanning for Profit in Calif or7iia, 

meiit of the mines to that extent. It indicates plainly 
that so much has been extracted and that that much 
less remains. Nor is it an industry which enhances 
skill or encourages the productive capacity of a people. 
On the other hand, the creation of ten millions in the 
way of agricultural product or manufactures discloses a 
capacity which of itself is a guaranty of a repetition of 
the annual product in an increasing ratio. The con- 
tinued production of wealth in the first instance is 
dependent upon the existence of precious metals. In 
the second instance, it shows a productive capacity 
inherent in the character and habits of the people pro- 
ducing it. Mines are easily exhausted by modern 
me'bhods of extracting ores, but skill, industry, intel- 
ligence and stability of character are inexhaustible, 
because they are elements capable of constant augmen- 
tation. An industrial prosperity founded upon fertility 
of soils, clemency of climate, the skill and intelligence 
of a people, the stability of personal character and 
government, may be depended upon, because all these 
things may have indefinite perpetuation. If upon such 
a basis, the mining for precious metals stands related 
as incidental, then it may be a valuable adjunct, sup- 
plementing symmetrical development. But to reverse 
this order, and found a commonwealth upon the ephe- 
merous industry of extracting precious metals, when, as 
indicated, the very prosecution of the industry is itself 
a process of impoverishment, offers no guaranty of 
stability. Mining for precious metals then cannot 
become the basis or standing industry in any country. 

Looking from this field of original enterprise to later 
industrial development in California, we find at last in 



Fruit Farming for Profit in California. 103 



tlie fertility of our soils, and the expanded possibilities 
of oTir climate, tlie hopeful direction of permanent 
greatness. For the sake of perspicuity, let it be re- 
j)eated that the permanency of a basis industry is 
dependent upon conditions favourable to successfully 
meeting a competition offered by other countries. 
Viewing California from this standpoint, it becomes 
more apparent every day that horticulture is to become 
the great industry of this country, to which other in- 
dustries will become subordinate and incidental. All 
j)eople find it advantageous to buy . from abroad the 
articles which will be furnished more cheaply than pro- 
duced at home. Between individuals and common- 
wealths, the law of economic _ production enforces the 
policy of directing the individual and general productive 
activity into the mcst profitable channels. If the pro- 
ducts of our orchards and vineyards can be offered in 
Eastern markets, at rates which will justify their pur- 
chase by consumers, as against the production of like 
articles at home, our industry in this regard is perma- 
nent. The question of probability, as to whether 
California can become the orchard of the whole country, 
is answered by experience. 

The writer finds a prevalent opinion to exist, which 
is a matter of surprise, to the effect that California 
sells fruit to the East, because of earlier conditions. 
It is the commonly received opinion, that our fruits 
ripen at a different time, and that our sales to the East 
are made when the home product is unavailable. This 
is not true. The fruits of the East, when taken in 
their entire variety, ripen in the months of July, August, 
September, and October. Take the green-fruit ship- 



104 Fruit Farming for Profit in California, 



ments of 1891 : We shipped from California, in the 
green-fruit form, three tliousand four hundred and 
twenty carloads to the Atlantic States, Middle States, 
"Western States, and the State of Colorado. Of this 
total shipment, two thousand eight hundred and ninety- 
three cars were sent forward in July, August, Septem- 
ber, and October, the four months covering the fruit 
harvest period of the East, leaving but five hundred 
and twenty- seven cars for the months of May, June, 
November, and December. It is significant that we 
shipped no fruit in the months of January, February, 
March, and April, and but twenty-two cars in May ; the 
first five months of the year, therefore, practically show 
no shipment. Our shipment begins in June, and more - 
than eighty j)er cent, of the entire shipment finds a 
market at the East, in the face of the domestic fruit 
production of those States. 

I have previously expressed the opinion that we 
had not placed our fruit within the reach of five 
millions of people. If this statement needs modifica- 
tion, it is in the direction of a reduction of the number. 
The early fruits reached the Eastern market at such 
rates as to make them luxuries. I have personally 
examined the market in the month of June, and found 
cherries selling at two dollars and fifty cents per box 
when thev were being; marketed in San Erancisco 
at thirty-five cents per box. I have information to day 
that California peaches are selling at seven cents a 
peach in New York, at the retail stands. It is not 
enough that our fruits are placed in the markets of 
the East ; they must be placed there at such rates as 
will enable the masses of people to consume them. 



Fruit Fa mil Jig for Profit in Calif or/na, 105 



Considered in tliis liglit, we have not placed our fruit, 
on tlie averao-e, witliin tlie reach of one million of 
consnmers. 

I have also stated, from data atIucIi may not be dis- 
puted, that the orchards of California last year produced 
three hundi'ed thousand tons of green fruit, which was 
shipped in the various forms of dried, canned, and green 
fruit, and found market in the world. This statement 
will not be controverted, since it cannot be successfully. 
Within twenty years fruit shipment has grown to the 
enormous proportions herein indicated. The question 
we are considerino- is : How shall we so distribute the 
fruit as to bring it within the reach, physically and 
financially, of a larger number, of consumers ? And the 
fjuestion is one of simple proportion. If at the present 
prices, and with the present facilities for distribution, 
we have found a market for three huncbed thousand 
tons, and yet have placed the fruit, when the price is 
considered, within the reach of five millions of people, 
may we not hope to double the market when we bring- 
that product within the reach of twice that number, 
or treble it when we have reached three times that 
number ? 

The whole subject opens a wide field for contempla- 
tion, when we consider the leading factors of the 
problem. First, we have an unlimited capacity for the 
prodnction of fruit. Second, we have economic advan- 
tages in its production, which will enable us to ofter 
it to sixty-five million of Eastern consumers, at a price 
wliich will justify them in purchasing. Between the 
price paid to the grower, and the price paid by the 
consumer, there is a vast mardn. The commission 



io6 Fniit Farmmg for Profit in California, 

alone on tlie sale of our fruit is seven per cent., and 
that of itself constitutes a market-seeking fund, wkicli 
should incite distributors to tlie highest activity. The 
present method of distribution is costly to the consumer, 
and all high cost to the consumer means a small reward 
to the producer. The higher the price paid by the 
consumer, the less the producer will get. High prices 
discourage consumption, and enforce the condition of 
over-production. So far as relates to green fruit, the 
commodity is exceedingly perishable. Commercially 
considered, every cargo lost is charged to the suc- 
cessful venture. Further examination into the 
subject convinces me that much improvement has 
been made, over the former years, in the way 
of distribution. The more important intermediate 
stations are supplied with carload lots. But the 
general statement that the fruits are shipped in 
carload lots to the large commercial centres for distri- 
bution remains true. In the year 1891 we shipped to 
the Atlantic States nine hundred and nine carloads of 
fruit. There are but five places of consignment, as 
follows : New York, five hundred and thirty cars ; 
Boston, one hundred and twenty- one cars ; Philadelphia, 
eleven cars ; Baltimore, one car, and Buffalo, one car. 
Of these five cities, two receive one car each, and one, 
a city of a million of inhabitants, receives eleven cars. 
There is a growing market for fruit west of the Mis- 
souri Eiver. As an illustration, of the shipments of 
1891, Butte, Montana, received forty-eight cars, and 
Denver, Colorado, one hundred and fifty cars. Can it 
be said of an enterprise that it has reached its full 
development, when a market is found in New York 



Fruit Farming for Profit .in California, 107 

City for five hundred and thirty carloads of green fruit 
in the year, while in Philadelphia but eleven cars are 
used ? Philadelphia has at least one half the popula- 
tion of the City of New York, while the climatic and 
commercial conditions are completely analogous. But 
these nine hundred and nine carloads, shipped to these 
Eastern centres, pass through towns, villages and cities, 
whose population in the aggregate is equal to the 
population of the cities to which the fruit was con- 
signed. 

Briefly, then, what is proposed is a system of direct 
distribution. It is evident that the one thousand one 
hundred and forty-two carloads of green fruit shipped 
to Chicago were in part re shipped, and this is the 
feature to which objection is raised. If a carload of 
fruit was shipped to Chicago, and was subsequently 
re- shipped to Milwaukee or Indianapolis, an additional 
profit to the middle man ensued. Thus the fruit was 
burdened with a price that placed a limit upon its 
consumption. It will be gratifying to all Californians 
to know that the proposition of direct shipment to 
all the centres of the East, great and small, instead of 
shipping to commercial centres for secondary shipment, 
or redistribution, has met with concurrent favour at the 
hands of the press and those directly interested. The 
transportation companies of the country stand ready to 
second any improvement which may be devised or be 
sought to be applied by the consignors of the freight. 
The present facilities for freight shipments from the 
Pacific Coast to the Eastern States constitute the cheap- 
est service, when rate and speed are considered, that is 
performed by the railroads of the United States. This 



io8 Fruit Fanning for Profit in California, 



great concession to tliis indnstry by tie railroads of the 
country stands fully acknowledged by shippers engaged 
in this species of merchandising. The determination 
of methods of distribution of any species of merchandise 
does not lie with the carrier. It belongs to the shipper 
wholly. Fruits are shipped by order of the consignor, 
and are delivered to the consignee. The vast system 
of network of railroads, connected by the long distended 
lines which reach the Pacific Coast, stands ready to 
perform the carrying service, and has actually per- 
formed this service at the minimum cost of movement 
alone. A better system of distribution is, therefore, 
not obstructed either by the rate at which the fruits 
are carried, or by want of liberal facilities for the car- 
riage. Distribution is the office of merchandise. The 
problem to be solved is, therefore, mercantile, and its 
solution is with the merchants engaged in this great 
enterprise, and not with the carrier who carries the 
fruit to its proper consignment according to order. 

What is sought is a market commensurate with the 
possibilities of production in this State. The magnitude 
of the opportunity is appreciated only by those who 
have given the subject thoughtful attention. A single 
purchaser of dried fruit in the City of San Francisco 
purchased in the space of one month one million dollars 
worth of fruit, and even the recitation of this fact does 
not disclose fully the vast volume of business possible 
to that industry. 

The next consideration relates to the profit of fruit- 
growing. A profit equal to one dollar a tree, or half 
that sum, or a quarter that sum, will confer upon our 
commonwealth a profit far in excess of that attending 



Fruit Fanning for Profit in California, 109 



auy otlier cultivation of tlie soil. We are enjoying in 
the current year the highest prosperity the fruit-growers 
have known, and yet the whole enterprise has made its 
way against continued predictions of over-production 
and ultimate failure. 

The magnitude of the opportunity also suggests at 
once the possibility of a special equipment and special 
treatment of the whole subject. We are in plain view 
of the ultimate possibilities of this industry, and the 
time has arrived when we may safely prepare to adopt 
such methods as to its commercial features as will take 
it out of the list of ordinary commercial transactions, 
and justify the inauguration of separate and special 
instrumentalities of distribution. In its practical 
aspect, the proposition demands the formation of a 
commercial company for the sale and distribution of the 
fruit. The auction method having proved successful, 
it is practicable to send to every town or city in the 
United States, where a market for a single car might 
be found, a carload of fruit, to be sold at auction ; and 
this fruit should be sent directly from the centres of 
distribution in California, and regardless of centres of 
distribution at the East, xis suiDplemental to this, it 
is competent, over Eastern lines, to distribute fruit in 
less than carload lots, over short distances of distribu- 
tion. Thus continuing the present method of sending 
all fruit to the great commercial centres of the country^ 
for which a market might be found, let it be sup- 
plemented by an organization which will establish 
agencies in every town or city that will take one or 
more carloads, and this be further supplemented by a 
distribution, in less than carload lots, through the in- 



1 10 Fruit Fanning J or Profit in California. 



strumentalities of local railroads everywhere. Wlien 
that is accomplished, a process of the steady growth 
and expansion of the industry will have set up. It will 
haye become organic, and, obeying the law of all 
organism, will continnally grow. It will offer a com- 
petition to the growth of fruits in climates not favour- 
able to their production, which will eventually give us 
absolute control of the markets now being supplied by 
Eastern producers. This is true, because it is true in 
modern economic methods, that notwithstanding the 
distance intervening between points of production and 
consumption, every article is being produced in the soil 
and climate, and under the conditions most favourable 
to its production. It is absurd to suppose that this 
law of modern economics is not ecjually applicable to 
the production of fruit in California, when the favour- 
ing conditions in this State are understood, or when 
they are contrasted wdth the unfavourable conditions of 
other portions of this country. The very contrast closes 
the argument. 

General farming, however profitable, can never confer 
population. Whether true or false, it is a leading 
tradition of general farming in this State that its 
highest profit is derived from large aggregations of 
ownership. These large aggregations have taken place, 
and the tendency is constantly in the direction of still 
greater consolidation of ownership, and consequent de- 
population of the country. On the contrary, the in- 
dustries connected wdth the orchards, vineyards, and 
gardens of California have an inherent tendency of se- 
gregation. Ten acres of orchard, vineyard, or garden 
will afford profitable employment equal to that required 



Fruit Fannijig for Profit in California, 1 1 1 

upon one thousand acres of ordinary wheat land in this 
State. The acquirement, then, by this commonwealth 
of a great substantial industrial foundation lies plainly 
in the direction of availing ourselves of the peculiar 
advantages of our climate. The absence of a cheap 
coal, that reservoir of mechanical power, forbids the 
hope of the establishment here of great manufacturing 
enterprises, with their attendant density of population. 
In fact, as already shown, the successful establishment 
of a basis industry will' eventually confer upon us 
manufacturing facilities and incidental enterprises in 
every direction, for, wherever a substantial ^industrial 
basis is established, diversity of profitable occupation 
arises as an inseparable incident of prosperity. 

Commerce is but an incident of industrial activity. 
The volume of commercial transactions, as relates to 
any people, is measured by their purchasing power, and 
the supreme source of wealth in any community is the 
productive capacity of its people. Horticulture, pro- 
secuted under the unrivalled advantages which attend 
it here, leaves us without a competitor. Upon this 
substantial and enduring basis the entire industrial 
structure will eventually rise. 



You will confer a favour on Mr. AYhitino' bv o-etting: 
as many friends as possible to read this book. 



lONDON : 

PEINTED BY GILBEKT AKD EIVINGTOX, LD., 
ST. JOHN'S HOUSE, CLEEKINWELL, E.C. 



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